Lily's Quest
by JackpotGirl
Summary: Lily Luna Potter is lost in time. But she might be just right to save an innocent...if he lets himself be saved. FULL SUMMARY INSIDE /rated for language and mild violence later on-PLEASE REVIEW!
1. A RedHeaded Potter

Full Summary:

Lily Luna Potter is expecting nothing but good times, as she comes back to Hogwarts for her sixth year of learning witchcraft and wizardry.

But then a simple walk through the grounds leaves her standing inside a Hogwarts castle, that is not hers, but her Dads.

Why was she sent back to the past? Why into the year of the Triwizard-Tournament, is there a reason for her to be there?

When she meets school heartthrob Cedric Diggory, she starts to believe that there's indeed a task for her...saving the innocent boy, who was killed long before she was born.

And she decides to take on that task to rescue him with all her force -and heart- but Cedric turns out to be quite hard to be saved...

Chapter One

The Red-Headed Potter

The streets around Grimmauld Place were quiet, a soft summer wind blew around the slim corners of the town houses and made the tree tops shiver slightly. The row of dark mansions stood up like a wall; calming and silent. The people living in the stone houses all lay in their beds sleeping. Well, all but one.

In house number twelve, there was still a light switched on.

Lily Luna Potter sat on her bed and folded panties and t-shirts. As usual, she had started much too late with packing up for Hogwarts. Her mother had been mocking her messiness the last few weeks of the summer holidays and stated, that Lily would never be finished with fixing her luggage before the Hogwarts Express left.

Now, staring at a bunch of clothes and school stuff, Lily figured that her mother had probably been right, like she usually was.

How she wished to just cast a spell on her rubbish and have it fly over into her suitcase but thanks to Uncle Kingsley, she, with her sixteen years, was not yet allowed to use magic when not in Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry.

Kids were only allowed magic if their life was endangered, Lily knew that because her father had told her that he once cast a _patronus_ charm outside school to defend himself from a Dementor-attack and was therefore suspended from Hogwarts for a short time before he could prove that he was only protecting himself.

After all, packing her suitcase wasn't such a big threat to her life but an enormous one to her nerves. Still that wasn't too much of an excuse, she thought sighing.

Maybe she would just ask her Dad tomorrow although she saw quiet little hope in that, knowing that he was always very strict with his kids to lead a 'normal' life when not in Hogwarts.

That's why he had sent them to a muggle kindergarten, despite the few incidents, when for example his little nudgers had mysteriously made the spinach disappear from their loaded plates.

They also lived in a normal house in London, next to other muggle families at Grimmauld Place Number Twelve.

The house was big and bright but the rooms were stretched; not too wide but very long. Sometimes Lily felt almost a little squeezed in those rooms, but she didn't mind much, she loved her home. She would have loved any place where her family lived.

Her Dad had been living in the house from his eighteenth birthday on and when he got married to his mother, she moved in along with him and then came the children; James Sirius, Albus Severus and she, Lily Luna.

Growing up, Number Twelve was a tiny paradise for the kids, though eventually they got bigger and bigger and the place seemed to shrink around them, but Lily figured that this just appeared to be happening because she saw things from an other perspective...a few inches taller, so to say.

Her Mother had told them, that their home had once been hidden from the muggles and when her parents had their first child, they decided to break the hiding charms and jinxed everyone to believe that the old house had always stood empty and that the Potters with their charming little boy, were the just arrived new inhabitants.

They fit in well into the community and Lily had made many friends in London...but she surely had to keep her "special talent" secret from them. Actually she would have liked to tell them about her skills but that would have been too risky.

Lily had once when she was younger, asked why they didn't just move to a wizard community, so that she and her brothers wouldn't have to keep their identity a secret and then her mother had replied quietly: "Your father prefers it that way. In the muggle world he's just a normal families father and that's really all he wants to be. In a wizard community we couldn't just walk outside the house that easily" Lily could see what her mother meant.

Her father was none less than the famous Harry Potter, the boy who lived, the man that once and for all finished the Dark Lord Voldemort.

All of that Lily just knew from horror stories of her Dads godson Ted, who had lost both his parents to this most evil magician of all times.

Her Dad didn't speak about his past very often. When the topic came up, he just threw a look at Lily's mother and she would change the subject, knowing that her husband didn't want to be reminded of all that happened and all that was lost during the magical war that had taken place when Lily wasn't born yet.

Nevertheless there were enough people who knew the stories first hand and so her Dad was famous, more than famous, he was almost treated like royalty; the saviour of them all.

Growing up as the daughter of such a 'celebrity' hadn't always been easy for Lily.

When she came to Hogwarts the first time at the age of eleven, all the other kids had stared at her like she had something big growing out of her nose and she heard them whispering: "This is Lily Potter"-"Harry Potter's youngest"-"Blimey..."

Her bigger brothers, James and Al, adjusted perfectly to their popularity.

James because he was, frankly speaking, a big-mouthed show-off and shy Al because he liked that he didn't have to talk so much with people, because they were gushing all the time about how it must've been, being a Potter, and sparing him to answer.

But Lily was neither as happy about the kids thinking she was the best witch in the grade (never having seen her hold up a wand before) and generally being a great person just because she was the kid of a living legend, like James, nor was she shy enough to enjoy the constant approaching of everyone everywhere that wanted to interview her about her family so she didn't have to do the talking, like Al.

After all, she had learned to deal with it within the past five years that she had been attending Hogwarts; she knew how to shake annoying admirers of her Dads off her sleeve and her house mates knew by now that she was her very own person.

But still, it was annoying time and time again and sometimes she just wanted to be someone else, someone like Linh Chang-Carter, one of her best friends, whose parents were Cho Chang-Carter, a witch who worked in the muggle world and an old friend of her Dad, and Oliver Carter, a muggle.

Linh was never looked at strangely when she met new people, Linh was never questioned about her parents like they were suspects in a crime. And Linh was never thought of being a miniature version of her father, when really, she wasn't much like him at all.

Well, Lily did inherit some of her fathers qualities, like for example his messy hair, which was a shade darker than that of her red haired cousins, making her's a little more crimson than orange and she definitely had his small lips, she thought, looking at her reflection in the window.

She was actually quiet talented with magic, especially stunning spells and potions and just like her father she sometimes prejudged people she met and later learned, that they weren't what they'd seemed to be.

Like Scorpius Malfoy, whom everyone called Corey, the only child of Draco Malfoy, her Dads old best hated school mate.

She had heard the most horrible things about his father from her brothers and Hugo Weasley, the son of aunt 'Miony and uncle Ron, and Ted obviously, who always liked to tell scary stories about people -even about his own passed away father, who had been a werewolf.

When she met Corey finally on the train towards Hogwarts, she and her brothers and cousins said some terrible things to him and little Lily, pained with guilty feelings, sneaked away from her friends later to apologize.

"Why should I accept your apology? You have been very rude and said some bad things although you don't even know me", he had said calmly and threw the little girl completely off track.

She repeated her apology and turned to leave, when Corey said something that made her stop.

"My mother is a muggle, you know? My Dad has changed, he no longer is the man your brothers say he is"

Lily turned around to the boy who was two years her prior and studied his features.

He was about her height and his boyish-bright face was framed by bright blond slick bangs that he had clearly inherited from his father.

Lily was later to learn that he looked really sweet when he smiled and when his cheeks revealed deep dimples.

But right in that moment he was just staring at her steadily with his small blue eyes as if he tried to read hers.

From that day on, Lily had always stood up for him, when her brothers had been saying things about him and although they weren't real friends until year five, where he, besides finishing his N.E.W.T.'s helped her in Magical History when her grades where dropping, she had always been getting along with him and so had anyone else after some time.

Because Corey indeed was different. Although he was a Slytherin, (something Al had been really concerned with as him and Scorpius, along with Rose Weasley, Hugo's big sister and all the other kids had been sorted into their houses, two years before Lily was chosen for Gryffindor to join her brothers, Ted and Hugo), he didn't keep up any of the manners Slytherins where allegedly to have, he was friendly and polite and willing to help every one who came up to him. But Lily had never picked up the prejudices of her brothers about Slytherin, seeing that her cousins, Lois, Dominique and Victoire were all members of that house and she had always loved them dearly. To her, it didn't matter at all, in which house you were. After all, she also loved her cousin Rose, who was in Al's grade and she had been in Ravenclaw. So this was all but a matter of where your bed stood, not who you where as a person.

Lily reached for a postcard that laid next to her bed and read for a short while:

_Hey Lilz, _

_I'm sitting at the beach now and all's well._

_I took tons of pictures I have to show to you sometime._

_See you before you get back to school!_

_Corey_

_PS: Say hi to Rose and Al, okay?_

That was about all she heard of him during the whole summer holidays but Lily wasn't mad, that was just who he was.

If you told him to remember something, he would most probably forget it right within the next two seconds.

If you asked him to get something done, you'd surely have to do it yourself, but not without having called up on him for more than a week, because he promised to do it.

He never remembered dates and he was always fifteen minutes late for everything.

But Lily liked him anyhow because he was funny and they had a lot in common.

They, for example, both liked the same bands -muggle bands, that Corey knew from his mother and Lily from her muggle-obsessed grandfather.

They also shared the same sense of humour, they liked the same movies and also both disliked Quiditch.

Unlike of the rest of her family, Lily had never found bigger interest in the broom-ball-game, that her mother, famous Ginny Potter, had played professionally with the team of the Hollyhead Harpies until her brother Al had been born.

She just didn't find anything appealing about riding brooms and chasing a stupid little bee-ball, while being endangered to get hit from another bigger ball and get hurt badly.

She put the card back on her bed cupboard and continued packing. Maybe she would just ask one of her brothers to help her, she thought hopeful as she picked up yet another pile of books and quills.

When Lily woke up the next morning, the house was already rumbling with the noise of her family. Her suitcase was finally loaded with all her stuff and she was just exhausted because it had indeed taken her the whole night to pack it.

"Lily", her Mom's voice shouted again from below, her first shrieking yell had woken Lily up from her three-hour sleep.

She got changed into her Hogwarts-uniform and hurried down the steps to catch a short breakfast.

As she reached the kitchen, Al popped up out of nowhere and made her shriek in shock, he was eighteen, so he was allowed to use any kind of magic he wanted and was very eager to make Lily 'enjoy' every second of it.

The middle Potter-kid was pretty, slim and tall, his features seemed more mature than those of James, who was also smaller but a tiny bit more attractive.

When James finished school three summers ago, he had about five so-called flings all around Hogwarts and now, training with the Irish Quiditch Team, he already received more love letters of teenage girls with a massive crush on him than Quiditch-veteran and Russia's best known trainer Victor Krum had been getting during his whole career.

Al wasn't great with girls at all for he could barely talk to them. Lily had almost believed he would never meet anyone who got behind his timid ways, when he met Alexa during the holidays the year before he finished his studies.

Alexa was a muggle girl, always beaming with excitement over something or anything, always outgoing and loud.

Usually no one would picture these two together but they matched perfectly and Alexa adored Al just the way he worshipped her.

Lily was happy for him but also a tiny bit envious because she hadn't met anyone that was to her what Alexa was to Al.

People would always say, she and Corey should be together but that was only until they saw him and Rose together, plus Corey, being her brother's age was also very much like a brother to her. But, blimey, he and Rose would indeed make a good couple, she agreed with everyone saying it, the only people that didn't seem to notice where the two of them...

Al's hand striking her head and messing up her hair-do ended her trail of thoughts and she sat down at the table next to her mother, looking at Al fiercely for a moment. While she finger-combed her hair she looked at the slender woman, that had given birth to her.

Ginny Potter was almost forty but still looked stunningly beautiful and fit but more than that she had the mind of a young woman and was the most loving mother anyone could imagine.

She smiled warmly at her daughter: "You happy to go back?"

"Depends...", Lily answered truthfully, "I always like being at Hogwarts but I'll miss you and I'll miss Al around as silly as it sounds"

Her mother laughed a little.

"Lily, he's your brother after all", her Dad said walking into the long room, that looked as if it had been squeezed in between two wider rooms, "And you've dealed with James not being there last year as well, haven't you?"

The most famous wizard of all times flung himself casually onto a chair and took a sip of a coffee cup that his wife had put there for him.

"But he was also downright pain in the neck, this James", Lily insisted but smiled.

"All your other friends will be there, too...thinking of Linh, Hugo and Lorcan", he said encouragingly and smiled at her, "plus you'll be with us at Christmas"

"And maybe Corey will even come around", her mother said with a tweak of her eyebrow and Lily's head snapped over to her.

"Why would he come?", she asked her curiously.

"Oh, your aunt Hermione told me the other day that he and Rose have been seeing each other more frequently"

"Finally", said Lily and turned to Al to find him put his finger into his mouth as if he wanted to make himself throw up.

"The last time I talked to them they were so full of 'lurv' it was revolting", he muttered, thinking about his friends.

"It's not revolting, it's sweet", Lily shook her head and swallowed the last swap of Orange juice, before she got up to get her things. Knowing her family, they would probably be running late already.

Family Potter minus the oldest son, who was on a world trip with Ted and Victoire, entered platform 9 3/4 just in time to catch the train.

Lily was overwhelmed as always by all the people and tried to spot some common faces.

Out of the mist of hugging families she recognized her three best friends, who were already standing close together like everyday at Hogwarts.

Hugo Weasley's freckled face was framed with messy red curls that seemed like a curtain for his freckled cheeks, he had his back turned on Lily, talking to a boy of his class, while casually having his arm wrapped around Linh's shoulder.

Linh Chang-Carter was an Asian-Caucasian mix with straight and long black hair and honey-coloured skin. She smiled enthusiastically at Lily when she got to them.

Lorcan took her into his embrace immediately.

"So good to see you, I was a little afraid, the Branglers had gotten to you...they're all over London, my parents say", the boy said, patting her back as if to make sure, she was really unharmed.

Shiny gold hair falling over his shoulders like a yellow waterfall, Lorcan's eyes glistened as always when he informed his friends about the newest evil creatures his parents -Luna and Rolf Scammander, editors of the Quibbler- had come up with.

When the gong announced the soon departure of the Hogwarts-Express, Lily ran back to her parents to take on her luggage and say her 'good-bye's.

"Now you behave yourself and don't forget to write every once in a while", Lily's Dad said to her, like he always did.

"And give Neville our love", said her Mum and kissed her on the cheek.

"I surely will", grinned Lily, "if he'll give me anything from 'O' to 'A' on my Herbology OWL"

"I'll miss you", her Dad said, kissing her, too

"I guess I'll miss you, too", Albus said sheepishly as he stepped to them from a quick talk with Hugo, Fred and Roxanne and took her loosely into his arms.

"I'll miss you all, but you got to let me go now, because if not, I'll be _missing_ the train"

Her brother released her from his grasp and her parents helped her to get the huge suitcase into the train just before the doors closed.

Lily waved to them from inside and already couldn't wait to sit in the Great Hall in front of a richly meal. Sure it would be a little weird not having her brother, both her brothers now, actually, around but...she was old enough to stand on her own two feet and there were still Hugo, Fred, Roxanne, Molly and Lucy, her uncle Percy's kids were still there.

"Bye Mum, Dad, see you, Al! Bye all you Weasleys", she waved enthusiastically at her uncles and aunts Weasley as the joined her parents farewells. She saw her mother ant Aunt Hermione talking to each other again and remembered to send Rose an owl for gossip as soon as she had a moment to spare in Hogwarts.

As the train station got smaller behind her, she went to search her friends and found them with the Longbottom twins Jean and Billy. Hugo shortly after excused himself to spend the rest of the way with his friends from his grade but Lily hardly minded; she and Linh had started wildly gossiping Corey and Rose and she couldn't blame Hugo for not wanting to be present for discussions over his sisters love life.

If anything, they'd have more than enough to talk about and with all things as they were, Lily was convinced that this was going to be a great great year at Hogwarts.


	2. Where Am I? Or When?

**Chapter Two**

_Where Am I? - Or When?_

The sun shone almost violently through the windows of the girls dorms in the Gryffindor tower, morning came way too early for the girls of room six.

They had been talking into the small hours of the day and fell asleep way too late to be getting up at the first rays of sunlight. But they knew it was essential to turn up at breakfast, of course for the impression.

Skipping the meals was not acknowledged in any positive way at Hogwarts, especially on the first day back in the castle.

Due to that fact, Lily Potter forced herself out of her cosy, warm bed, feeling smashed and looking worse. She slurped into the bathroom and almost tripped at the sight of her reflection.

Her hair was spread like after an inner explosion into every possible direction but straight down, she had dark shadows beneath her light brown eyes that were actually hardly to be seen, the way they were still glued together from sleep. She looked rather beaten up, she thought and smiled wryly.

The small girl left out a deep sigh of grief and she cursed her mirror once over for not presenting her with a breathtakingly beautiful face, that wasn't to be ugly no matter how long she had stayed up or how much she might have danced and partied the night before.

Aurora, Lysander's and Lorcan's cousin and potentially even more crazy then them, outshone the sun, Lily thought with slight envy, looking at the blonde that walked up beside her, to put water into her beaming face.

"Why are you so...fine?", Lily asked in sheer disbelief of the life that was already spreading in Aurora's eyes, "Especially since you got in last yesterday"

Aurora had not been on the train with them, her parents had brought her straight back to Hogwarts from their trip to Australia.

"Oh, that's easy", the high melodic voice of Aurora pained Lily's suffered ears, "you just throw in one of those 'Darning Drops' and you sleep like a baby...it's made of purple-toad-skin, that means it is the best for...well...you know...the relaxation of sleeping...I guess"

Lily stared at her for a moment and remembered how she had missed her friends pointless believes in any sort of magical helper, creature or whatsoever that she liked to share with each and everyone, she was just like her cousins.

"The power of suggestion...", murmured Mekenna, her other room-mate, coming into the tiny bathroom, which was pretty stuffed now and Lily felt the urge to leave. She hated small rooms with too many people in it.

When Linh finally got up, the other girls were ready to leave but as always, they would have to wait for her. Still, Linh wasn't obsessed with her _looks_ at all. She just threw on some jeans and a giant T-Shirt of Hugo's she refused to give back to him, because she found it so cosy.

What was taking her longer than anyone else was making her bed.

Since day one at Hogwarts, Linh had been the tidiest of them all and if it hadn't been for her, their room would've always been a waste bin, especially with Lily and Mekenna around, who've had never been good at cleaning up or whatever.

Carefully, Linh folded all of their blanket and their cushions, put their stuffed animals on top of it and the pyjamas back into the closets.

"It's all right, Linh...let's get going", Mekenna said dryly and turned to leave.

Lily felt so much at home that she didn't even miss her parents any more, it was all good, nothing had changed at all.

Down in the Great Hall it was already noisy and to Lily's satisfaction, none of her house mates seemed fully awake. She obviously wasn't the only one that spent way to long catching up on everyone's summers.

Breakfast was delicious, like every day, but she couldn't eat half as much as she had wanted to, being full after just a bole of cornflakes and a jelly toast.

The Gryffindor table was drowned in the many voices with the resuming discussions of said summers and great adventures.

Lily had nothing interesting to tell for she had been staying with her family and muggle friends in London all the time but she liked to listen to Hugo, who was telling about their family's trip to Hawaii (they had been drafting and he'd almost been bitten by a poisonous sea-snake).

Hugo mainly led the conversation to give his points of view on his 'near-death-experience' as he exaggerated in a pathetically heroic voice.

"Morning, cousin", said Fred, who had just arrived at the table and patted Lily's shoulder, squeezing himself between her and Aurora.

"I bet you want to do me a favour", he grinned sweetly at her.

"I don't really think so", she answered lightly.

"Oh, come on, little one, I'll be thankful forever", the seventh-year said, "do it for the family bounds, okay?"

"What?", Lily hated her way of never being able to deny anyone anything.

"Dad wanted me to go see Hagrid and give him some book right after I got here, but I really got to start learning for my N.E.W.T.s and I don't want to take on the walk today...I'm just so exhausted from yesterday's night..."

"Is it my fault, that you had to play 'exploding snap' the whole night through?", the 'little one' took a wild guess that was probably not as far from the truth as she would've thought, "And as if you'd really learn for you N.E.W.T.s"

"Please...", he stared at her with big puppy eyes and pulled his plea-face.

"Oh...fine", she gave in after a short while as she always did.

"That's my girl", Fred smiled, pulled out a little book covered in leather out of his back pocket and handed it over to her.

"Well, I was finished anyway", Lily murmured and got up from her seat.

Stepping into bright daylight finally brought some life back into Lily's face and she brightened up as the morning did.

The sunlight at Hogwarts had a different quality than London's; it did not have to fight its way through clouds of smog and just felt all different on her skin. It was always very appealing to Lily for it felt like 'real' light to her and she remembered how she actually liked early morning walks through the grounds when it was sunny.

She was the only person walking down the hill towards Hagrid's little cottage and she decided to take a little leap through the forbidden forest to inhale some wood-filtered and scented air.

A forest was some other thing she always missed in London.

The trees stood up hugely and strong, waving in the wind and it smelled like summer; a little musky and a little sweet. Lily followed a trail that she had discovered in one of her earlier years, when she and the gang had been getting a rush out of stepping into the forbidden areas of the castle grounds.

Along the way stood beautiful blueish flowers on a meadow; colourful dots on the green grass and Lily stood still for a while enjoying the perfection of nature around her when suddenly something else caught her eye.

At the end of the meadow, between two trees there seemed to be strange fog, the space blurred out of her sight and she rubbed her eyes, thinking that it could only be a fault in her vision.

But the weird mist didn't go away, it still looked like someone ad cut a whole out of the meadow and replaced it with smoke that had he shapes of the wood but wasn't to be touched.

There was something to it that made Lily walk straight to the mist. She crossed that meadow as if she was pulled on a string.

_Need. To. Know._, was the only thing she thought.

Normally she would have expected the fog to clear up as she approached it, but nothing happened, it was still as blurry as it had seemed from the other side.

Lily went over the pros and cons of giving in to her curiosity. If she'd just take one step inside the fog, just to catch a little peak, what could be so terrible about it...if she really just put her head inside it, that wasn't dangerous was it?

On the other hand side, her Dads godfather Sirius had been killed by fog, as silly as it sounded.

Ted had told her the story of the 'killing gate', a stone arch that lead straight to the 'other side'. You just put one foot through the smoky mist inside the arch and you were dead on the spot.

That was something she didn't want to risk, dying was nothing that made any impression on Lily. She loved life and she wanted to hold on to it as long as possible...but she was so curious.

Pulling all of her self control together, she turned her back on the fog and took a couple steps towards the trail.

Halfway through she stopped and felt her overwhelming need to find out what was behind – or inside – the fog mixed with the feeling of something pulling her back to it.

She turned to face the space in between the trees once over and took a deep breath.

And then she just ran. The trees flew past her and the mist got closer, closer until she entered it.

It was like stepping into a cloud, it was wet and dry, warm and cold at the same time, Lily felt as if her insides were being torn apart and pushed together at once, but it didn't hurt though and it assured her that she wasn't dead – yet. But sooner as she could finish the thought, one step of hers had her out of the cloud.

Lily gasped at the weird sensations it had given her body and looked down at herself, she was okay and in one piece but she shivered. The temperature must've dropped about ten degrees and a cold wind blew through the forest.

The red-head turned on the spot and shrieked – the fog was gone.

"What the hell...?", she said to herself, "- bloody Weasley gadgets!"

Of course someone had pulled of a joke and she expected Fred and Hugo to jump out of the bushes laughing at her but nothing happened.

They would probably be waiting for her in the common room to listen to her story about a weird cloud that freaked her out and then burst out laughing because she went right into their trap.

Lily was furious. That hadn't been funny at all, she would be telling them right away, she thought and started to move. She felt the little book inside the front pocket of her skirt and hesitated.

But no, Hagrid could wait, first she had to jinx her bloody cousins.

When she reached the castle, she was freezing, her blouse was bulging in the wind and her skirt had wandered up to her waist from walking, leaving her knees free to the cold. It felt miserable.

Inside it was a bit warmer but Lily was still angry when her steps resounded on the moving stairs.

If she hadn't stared at her feet, knowing she would be crimson red from her anger and the cold, she would have noticed the few people with her on the stairs glancing after her, as if they had never seen her before.

The corridor towards the Gryffindor tower was empty and Lily was quiet thankful for that.

"Pineapple ice-cream", said the girl to the fat lady's portrait that usually should have let her enter the Gryffindor common room after saying the correct password.

But the fat lady just snorted: "Wrong password" and looked at her.

"What do you mean 'wrong password'? They couldn't have changed it, we just got it yesterday", Lily coughed out, already annoyed.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, new Gryffindor girl but I can't let you enter without the correct password.

"New Girl? I've been here for five years! Are you all insane? - Okay, Fred, Hugo, this is so funny! I'm laughing some other time, so, you can stop the pretend now, we're all very amused", she yelled into the emptiness of the corridor like a mad person, seconds away from starting a riot.

"Is there a problem?", a common voice said, coming from the right corridor.

The slender figure of Professor McGonaghal, headmistress of Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry, walked towards Lily who was about two heads shorter than her.

"This bloody portrait won't let me in", Lily said, her voice hitching in her throat with impatience.

"She doesn't know the correct password", the Fat Lady fell into her word.

"Everybody quiet", McGonaghal said harshly and shut Lily up right away.

"Now, you come with me, young miss", she said and made her follow her, nodding to the fat lady as she turned around.

"Why is this my fault now?", Lily muttered under her breath and didn't know if her Spell-teacher and Headmistress was ignoring it or not hearing it.

After a while, Lily noticed where they were going and sighed.

"What are you taking me to your office for? You should rather be taking Fred and Hugo, they are pulling of pranks in the forbidden forest!", Lily squealed.

Professor McGonagal didn't slow her steps, but looked bewildered at the girl.

"Who's Hugo?", she asked.

"Hugo Weasley", Lily said and looked at her like she lost her mind, maybe her memory was getting dim, "Red hair, freckled face?"

"Are you talking about George Weasley?", she asked again.

"Well, that's his second name, so yeah, you could say that", Lily answered but her teacher still seemed bewildered.

Their walk ended in front of the bronze bird statue that turned after McGonagal whispered a password and revealed the stair case that led to the headmistress' office.

Lily followed her upstairs and tried to get behind the reason, why she should be interviewed for her little encounter with the fat lady, it really hadn't been that much of a big deal had it?

The office looked a little different than the last time she had been in it, but that had been a while ago; in Lily's fourth year.

She and Aurora had been jinxing Nearly-headless Nick and Professor McGonagal wasn't half as amused by his rainbow-coloured see-through appearance as Lily and her friend. So to take on their detention hours they had been coming to her office every Monday afternoon, four weeks in a row.

Right now, McGonagal had a visitor, an old man with a long white beard and long white hair; with a pair of half-moon-shaped glasses on top of his crooked nose which reminded Lily of someone she couldn't place, like some face she had seen in a history book.

Strangely enough the visitor sat in McGonaghal's chair behind the massive wooden desk and looked rather confident and in place actually, he also didn't look like a visitor at all really, he looked like he owned the place.

Lily was slightly irritated.

"I found her in front of the Gryffindor portrait, she was denied entrance because she doesn't know the password and I don't know her. She wears Gryffindor robes but I do not have her in my house, I know that for sure", McGonagal said respectfully and Lily was too baffled to say anything, she just stared up to her teacher that had just denied to have seen her before in her life.

Which was a fat lie, obviously, McGonagal had been attending her first birthday, she even had picture proof somewhere at home.

"Strange", the old man said with a silky warm voice and studied Lily's clueless features, "Would you be so kind to leave us alone for a little bit, Minerva? Thank you for bringing her here, we will talk about this later."

McGonagal did what she was told and Lily was pretty weirded out.

_Why is she leaving me alone with him? Who is this?_, she was completely out of her wits.

"She knows me", she said helplessly, "I'm a Gryffindor, the sorting head put me there when I was eleven years old, I've visited this school ever since"

"What's your name, young miss?", he asked her in friendly and patient manner.

"Lily Luna Potter, sir", Lily shakily replied, really scared.

"Very interesting", he said and looked like this was just what he was thinking, he leaned forward a bit as if to catch a better sight of her and than leaned back again and looked like he considered something.

"I'm very pleased to meet you, Miss Potter, my name is Albus Dumbledore"

Now Lily burst out suddenly, she laughed so hard her stomach hurt.

How far had Fred been going just to fool her? He had taken the fat lady and Professor McGonaghal on board and some old man – obviously a very good actor – to pretend he's the passed away headmaster of Hogwarts; her Dads mentor Professor Albus Dumbledore, one of the greatest magicians of all times. She had to admit she was impressed by all these means although it seemed kind of unasked for to pull of such a gigantic prank just for the sake of making fun of her, she thought with a spark of anxiety.

The smallest Potter put one hand on her belly and breathed in forcefully, waiting for someone to tell her this was a joke.

But the only sound that was to be heard for quiet a while was her laughing that steadily got crazier.

Nothing happened, no one jumped out from behind the curtain and pointed a finger at her.

No one said: "Got you" and Lily momentarily knew how much she hoped for this to be just a well staged prank.

Looking up, she caught a glimpse of 'Dumbledore' focusing her, he didn't seem surprised at her outburst, just vaguely amused.

But he didn't say anything and Lily's laughing slowly transformed into crying as the revelation slowly fought its way to her mind.

It could not be. This could not be real...where had this bloody mist taken her to? Time-Travelling-fog? What the hell was going on? It simply could not be real. But the sight of the old men left her no doubt any more.

This guy wasn't a perfect actor and he actually had reminded her of a portrait in few of her history books; that man in front of her _was _Albus Dumbledore.

This meant that Lily had to be everywhere but at Hogwarts – her Hogwarts – and nowhere near her time.

Dumbledore had died none less than twenty-six years ago, she recalled.

And that was when Lily Potter passed out.

So, let me hear some comments, please...what y'all think? Is this good so far? Do you like Lily?

Don't leave me alone with my imagination, please!

No seriously, if you like it, if you hate it...just tell me!

Next Chapter: **Keeping The Secret**


	3. Keeping The Secret

Chapter Three

Keeping The Secret

As the blurry schemes that Lily saw, when she opened her eyes again, were changing into clear shapes, two things happened at once.

First, she noticed where she was; the headmasters office at Hogwarts castle. Second, she remembered _when_ she was and wished to faint yet again.

She closed her eyes and tried to force that gentle unconsciousness, that had drowned her a few seconds ago, back onto her.

"Miss Potter?", Dumbledore – the _real _Dumbledore! – asked softly but Lily simply refused to open her eyes.

This was a dream, nothing but a really weird dream.

And then it hit.

OF COURSE, it had to be a dream! Magic could do a lot of things...but it sure couldn't take you back 26 years into the past by simply walking through a blurry cloud, could it?

She would just have to open her eyes and she'd be awake and fine. Maybe wrapped a little too tightly in her blanket and probably, if she opened her eyes, there would be Mekenna and Linh and Aurora laughing at her for screaming while she was asleep.

It was going to be just like that, she could almost hear them chuckling already.

She figured that she had never really woken up from her first night in Hogwarts, she was simply oversleeping because the food from the big meal had been limp, probably.

The house elves had pulled of a prank and served magic mushrooms for dinner. It just _had_ to be like that. She was just imagining things. She was doing that sometimes...

_Okay, now, you'll just open your eyes and everything is going to be just normal_, she said to herself and held her breath.

_3,2,1_...and she blinked.

"No, no, no, NO!", she was furious, actually she was almost crying.

She sat upright on the sofa where Dumbledore must have put her after she passed out and starred into his light blue, watery eyes. She was still there. In his office. Million years away from her time. Sitting in front of the greatest wizard of _all_ times.

He seemed totally calm and that annoyed Lily even more. She was freaking out right there and he was just smiling at her. What was he thinking?

"I'm not supposed to be here, this is wrong. This is so wrong...I...", she was running out of words.

"You're right, it is quite a daunting thing that has seemed to have happened to you. I haven't fully figured it out myself, but maybe if you assist me with it, we'll be putting the puzzle together a little faster. Are you willing to calm down and answer some of my questions?", he said and his voice was like water ceasing her fiery fury within and when she answered her chest was as if folded, both shoulders in front of her spine, looking like a balloon that lost half of his air and that was exactly how she felt inside. She gave in.

"I...I...guess", she answered almost not audible.

"Fine. Would you tell me your name again?", he asked and seemed really interested.

"Lily Luna Potter"

"And your father is Harry Potter, am I right?", he assumed but seemed pretty convinced already.

"Yes. And Ginny Potter is my mum. Or Ginny Weasley...I think they are not married here yet.", Lily was more talking to herself than to the old man in his chair. She wanted to prove her existence to be real, even in this time, where she was not real at all, even when she felt like she was totally crazy, stuck in this surreal scenario that she couldn't have imagined in her worst nightmare.

Still, saying out loud, that her parents were Harry and Ginny Potter made her feel more real to herself and even more calm. At least a little.

"Very interesting", Dumbledore stated sincerely, "and how old are you now?"

"I'm sixteen"

"Sixteen...may I ask when you were born? Just give me the year"

"2007", Lily said and felt sick to her stomach. This really wasn't her time, she was so afraid of just disappearing when someone noticed that she wasn't supposed to exist yet.

"Hmm", now Dumbledore spoke to himself, "almost incomprehensible. Now, I might ask – and please, answer me truthfully – have you used a 'Time Turner'?" He faced her directly now, sting-eyed.

"No, I don't even know what that is", Lily said, before she even searched her brain for stories containing 'time turners'.

"I feared so", Dumbledore reached for his chin and scratched it thoughtfully.

"How did you get here, then?", he asked the most obvious question.

"I thought you could tell me that", Lily said sincerely, "I just walked through some strange fog right after breakfast and then I was here."

"Where did you find this fog?"

"On a meadow in the forbidden forest", Lily said looking at him a little afraid, not knowing if he would be angry at her for setting foot into that forbidden area. But he just went over it.

"Did you consider going back through it?", Lily was almost a little offended by this question.

"Duh!", it slipped out of her, "the bloody stuff just disappeared. If it had been there still I wouldn't be sitting here now" She slowly gained more self-confidence although she had no idea where that was coming from.

They sat there in silence for a little while and Lily wondered where their strange conversation would be going. She also wondered how she deserved to be sitting there with him, in the year 1995, as she figured.

How did she deserve this mess. Her weirdly built-up confidence flew out of the window yet again. What the hell was she supposed to do? She cursed herself for setting foot into the mist. She cursed herself for taking the other way to Hagrid's house and she cursed Fred for not taking this stupid little book to him by himself, as he had been asked to do it.

She felt like there was a vacuum, spreading momentarily from inside her chest into her whole body, drowning her in indifference and a suppressed feeling of pain.

"I may speak honestly with you, even if you might not like to hear it, but, Lily, I am actually very pleased to meet you. You might want to know why", she heard Dumbledore say dimly through the humming sound of her blood rushing through her brain

Lily did want to know, but she felt so empty and deaf inside, that she couldn't manage any answer but "Hmm hmm".

"I was not...", Dumbledore continued unaffected by her lack of excitement, "I was not thinking that it was possible that you could be living. And that is a very pleasant surprise, indeed, which actually shakes up some things, in a good way. But still, me knowing who you are, knowing whose child you are, could maybe endanger you and your family"

Now, Lily looked up. Why was he not thinking she could be existing? What did he knew about her?What was up with the danger to her family he was talking about? Was it not only her on the line now? Was it her family, too?

"Why?", she asked shakily.

"Why it might be dangerous who's child you are is not of any interest for you now, more importantly, there is something else that you have to understand...It's a miraculous thing about time travelling, that not even the best wizards in the world can fully comprehend.

You see, everything that happens has a course. A course led to your existence; the love of your parents for one another. But if, for instance, your father fell in love with another girl, you might never have been born. This makes sense so far, but now it gets a little more complicated, I think. Imagine yourself leaving my office, going down the moving staircase and suddenly bumping into your mother, young Ginny Weasley, and she trembles and falls down the stairs. If she is badly hurt, you may never get born, either. You would simply disappear. You could change the entire future with just one slight movement of your hand and when I'm a partner in this secret-keeping I just might be able to do that, too"

Lily's vision became blurry once over, but this time not from an upcoming faint but from hot tears filling her eyes.

She would be messing everything up. She would make herself disappear. It seemed so clear to her, that she would be doing something stupid that would endanger the entire future. Why was this happening to her? How did she deserve it? This was not fair!

She was just realising what it meant, what Dumbledore had been saying.

If she ever talked to anyone in this time and told them who she really was, she was messing it up.

If she ever met her parents now, she would probably be messing it up. If she did roughly anything, she'd be messing it up. Everything.

This burden felt so heavy on her that she literally felt herself shrinking to half of her size under its weight.

"I want to go home", was what she meant to say but the words that came out of her mouth was more like: "I wonsha gome" She only noticed by the sound of her voice that she was sobbing.

"Of course", Dumbledore comforted her understandingly and patted her shoulder, "I promise to sort this problem out for you as soon as possible. We will get you back to _when_ you belong. But it might take some time. I am only familiar with travelling back in time...not forward.", he smiled warmly and Lily felt utterly better for a moment.

"I suggest, as long as you are here, you stay in Gryffindor and visit the school like a normal student but I strongly advise you to stay away from your parents. They are third and fourth graders, though, so it should be easy for you to avoid them. You will have to be as quiet as you can be, you must not gain any unnecessary attention. You must not meet anyone you know in the future. You must not change the past for you will change the future! We will tell anyone that you've come from South Africa with your parents. The two of us will have to keep your true identity a secret...", Dumbledore put his hand firmly on her shoulder and made her look at him.

"Can you keep this secret?", he asked dead serious.

"Yes", she mumbled with tears streaming down her face.

When Dumbledore sent her to leave he had provided her with a new registered name in the school records – Lily Ann Collins – her time table for her sixth year at Hogwarts and about four packs of hanker chiefs, which was probably the best of those three things for Lily at the moment.

He ordered Professor McGonagal back into the office and told her, that the young Miss Collins had wanted to cause a little fuss on her first day but that she regretted behaving so badly and that she promised to keep it down from now on. Lily doubted, that McGonagal didn't believe the headmaster, looking at the piece of grief that she was. Truly full of regret.

The slim old lady took her back to the Gryffindor tower and showed her the bedroom; room six with one bed being free, which was hers from the future. Strangely enough, Lily thought bitterly.

Luckily, the other students were down at the Great Hall having dinner and it had gone dark outside. Apparently, she had been out of conciousness for the largest part of the day.

Lily was worried about anything, she worried about how she got there and how she could get back and most of all, she worried what would happen, when they noticed her disappearance at her Hogwarts.

Her mother would probably break down, when they told her and her father would die of grief, thinking he lost yet another loved one – someone he loved more than any of the others that Lily knew he had lost.

Being his only daughter, his little girl, Lily had always known that she held a special place in his heart. She felt so bad for him. She just wanted to be home at Number Twelve, or sitting at one of the cosy couches in the Common Room in her Gryffindor tower, or being down at the lake with her brothers and cousins.

She actually didn't care where she would be as long as it was somewhere in the future.

_Please please please, if I get home soon, I will never be messy again, I will always clean up, I will always do my homework and be a really nice girl...I would do anything. _

She was so homesick and hopeless that she almost threw up at the overwhelming cruelty she suffered.

Lily started to snivel again and threw herself on the bed filled with self-pity.

When the other three inhabitants of room six arrived later, they found the bed on the left side next to the door taken by a new girl, that was hiding herself under the blanket and crying silently into her pillow.

Lily woke up from a few girls voices in the morning but kept her crusty-from-crying-eyes closed. As her mind cleared from sleep, she picked up some parts of the conversation.

"...well she certainly wasn't here yesterday", a relatively low voice said casually.

"Maybe she just arrived before we came and didn't want to come down for dinner...not knowing anybody. Poor thing", a higher, bell-like voice said.

"Oh, Janice, she's a big girl, I think she can handle it", this one sounded vaguely annoyed.

Lily turned around loudly in her bed to prepare the others for her getting-up. They fell silent immediately and all starred at her without discretion, when she sat up.

"Hi...", the red-haired Potter said, irritated by the way they looked at her. Obviously, she was used to being stared at but not this way. She felt like she was a new girl no one knew. Not a new girl everyone knew from the tabloid section of the _Daily Prophet_, where they published pictures of her and her family on vacation or wherever.

_Well_, she thought, _actually, I _am_ the new girl no one knows._

That was the first thing that made Lily smile after she had stepped out of that bloody mist the day before. She was not famous in this time, she was just like anybody.

A no-one. She almost chuckled.

If that was the only good thing that this horrible situation held for her, she would seize it. She would just go round, being that no-one. Sure, it wouldn't take long before Dumbledore would get her back to her friends and family, she thought a little more calm and positive than she had been the night before.

In order to find some sleep, she had convinced herself that Dumbledore, being such a powerful wizard, would be coming up with a solution to her problem in short time and if there was something – anything – that could make her being there less painful and disturbing, then she would have to concentrate on that very thing.

She would make the best out of it. It would be like a very strange students exchange. Thinking of her situation that way, made her feel a tiny bit better.

"I'm Lily Collins", she said now to the three girls, that still focused her, "I'm new"

"Yeah, we figured that out so far", the annoyed one said and a tall, sun-tanned Italian-looking girl hit her in the side with her elbow.

"Ouch, Janice, what was that for?"

"For being so rude, Tara, it's Lily's-", she paused and gave Lily a bright smile, "-first day here and you're already messing with her"

Lily just smiled on the inside and thought it was hilarious that this Janice was so protective of her without even knowing if she would like her or not.

That spoke for Janice though, because she treated her like that without expecting an autograph from her famous father.

"No big deal", Lily said, "I didn't take it that way"

"Because I didn't mean it that way", Tara said more to Janice.

So far it was going all right; Lily's exchange-fantasy worked pretty well for her.

She spoke casually, her voice showed no tremble, no hint of the whirlwind that was still blowing inside of her head.

"So...how is Hogwarts? A blast? Or a bore?", Lily asked after some time and applauded herself in her mind for not sounding anything like knowing the answer to that question.

"It's all right", Tara answered, "the week-ends are great, but school is...er...you know...school. The teachers are okay mostly...only Professor Snape is a little off"

'Snape' rang a bell in Lily's head – Severus Snape – a former headmaster at Hogwarts who saved her fathers life although he couldn't stand him. Her parents had named Albus Severus after him.

"But the boys are mostly eye-candy", Tara's fully ironic voice was ending her trail of thoughts.

"Oh, come on, they're not all ugly", the third, mouse-looking girl spoke for the first time, "think of Cedric"

"You and your Cedric", Tara said, rolling her eyes.

"He's not _my_ Cedric", the girl said and went crimson red.

"Who is Cedric?", Lily asked, thankful for the conversation that was blooming and that kept her distracted.

"Cedric Diggory is the man about school...boys want to be like him and girls want to date him", Janice said melodically, twinkling at the mouse-girl.

"Stop hinting that I'm one of those girls", she answered spiteful.

"Oh, Camilla, it's obvious that you are, stop denying it already", Tara barked.

Camilla was silent, she only looked at Tara pleadingly and she responded with silence as well.

"Now, leave them sort that one out, get dressed and I'll show you 'round the castle", Janice said happily and pulled Lily from her bed.

The girl was radiant, like Lily was the new toy she had gotten for a gift on Christmas, she wanted to show around to all of her friends.

"But isn't school starting?", Lily wondered.

"Yes, we will just skip breakfast"

"What? You can't skip breakfast, what will the teachers think of us?", Lily said and was a bit scared off by her own nerdy reaction.

"Old Dumby doesn't really care about any one attending breakfast and the others are too busy with the preparations for the Triwizar-", Janice was cut of by the slamming of a door. Camille had locked herself in the bathroom.

"Can't get over Cedric?", Lily smirked, adjusting got easier by the minute.

"It's useless trying to make a move on Cedric...he is like a superstar...an athlete, really sporty. He's the captain of the Hufflepuff Quiditch team. Plus, he has a girlfriend. Her name is Cho Chang"

Lily started coughing. Cho Chang as in Mrs Cho Chang-Carter? She reminisced an image of Linh's mother at the platform 9 ¾, all old and puffy and round, smiling from one ear to the other as she welcomed her only child back.

"D'you know her?", Janice asked surprised.

"No...'s just a funny name" Lily lied.

That should be interesting...trying to keep away from everyone she knew in her time if they were just about everywhere in this castle, Lily thought in a sudden flash of bitterness.

Bitterness though, was not something Lily experienced mostly in the following days.

Janice made great effort to make her feel at home; introduced her to all the people, showed her the library and the grounds (Lily had to pretend to be overwhelmed by everything and exaggerated foolishly when Janice had showed her the wooden bridge leading to Hagrid, so now Janice would always suggest going there in the free time).

The Gryffindors where nice with almost no exceptions. Especially her uncle George was a blast, but she only got to know that from a distance, seeing that she could not talk to him or leave a print in his memory.

Whenever she saw Fred Weasley though, her insides twisted and ached, knowing his fate. He would not survive the war. That was his destined path as it seemed and no matter how Lily wished to just warn him, the fear of changing the future and ruining everything made her stay quiet, avoiding the Weasley twins as carefully as she could manage.

Doing so, she roughly spent any time in the Common Room. That was essential because not only the oldest Weasleys left at Hogwarts 1995 where hanging out there almost always but also Lily's parents and her now sloppy uncle Ron and his future wife, Hermione Granger, who looked just like she did in the future.

She had seen her father a couple times which had been extraordinarily weird.

The first time she noticed him was on her first dinner at the Great Hall. She was already sitting at the house table, next to as-always-jabbering Janice, when he and uncle Ron sat down about fifteen feet away from her.

Her dad was relatively short but his hair had the same characteristic quality in its resistant messiness as it had the way she knew him. He was a pretty young boy but seemed nothing like the great hero everybody said he had been growing up. To Lily, he just looked like an all normal boy.

She saw her mother at the table, too, she had an odd resemblance to James and looked as shy as Albus on his departure to Hogwarts almost constantly.

Lily didn't have any difficulties with staying away from them, how she was supposed to.

Mainly because she was dead scared that something happened to them and also because seeing them always pained her with raging home-sickness. How she missed them.

The first days were full of experiences like that at dinner that both scared her senseless and strangely fascinated her at the same time. Another thing resonating from these incidents was that she hardly noticed the weeks passing. Even attending classes was oddly interesting (more interesting than usual) because everything was sort of taught a little different at Hogwarts back then.

'Potions' was the biggest surprise. It was like nothing Lily had ever been taught before.

Professor Snape entered the class room down in the cellar with a waving cloak, looking more like a giant bet than a human being. He spoke with his dark, scary voice that made Lily's arm hair stand up, but he did it with such passion, that she was totally captivated.

He was really in there and Lily loved it.

She had always been good at potions and Snape was stunned, when she produced a headache-curing potion in just ten minutes.

The 'Potions'-teacher was strict and a little scary but she didn't dislike him at all. Janice thought, he was weird but Lily couldn't really see why. He just seemed damaged, that was all.

One day, when Lily was the last in the class room, gathering her things, she noticed his eyes on her.

"Is everything all right, Professor Snape?, she asked politely at the haunted look in his eyes.

"Yes", he answered curtly, "I was just wondering...if not for the eyes..."

He was mumbling more to himself now, "...and then the name, ironically..."

"Professor Snape?", Lily repeated, her forehead in wrinkles.

"Tell me, Miss Collins", he said, suddenly focused again, "are you in any way related with the Evans family? London based? They had a daughter, a witch, Lily Evans?"

Lily didn't have to know the old stories now to remember that Snape had been infatuated with her grandmother, the way his eyes started glistening when he just said her name...the way, she noticed now, that he looked at her, maybe imagining her with her Dad's, meaning her grandmother's, eyes, it was obvious.

"No", she said quickly before leaving even more hurried, "Never heard of her"

Still, avoiding teachers from the future that taught her right now, like Professor McGonagal or Professor Trelawney, wasn't too easy for Lily.

But she always tried to get a seat in the very last row and was silent for most of the time. The only good thing was, that she didn't have to care about failing, she would be going home any day, anyway. At least that was what she hoped underneath it all.

All this time, very busy with all the avoiding and securing her non-causing-attention-behaviour, Lily totally missed the fuss that was going on in Hogwarts these days. She also found nothing strange about the students that were dressed differently from her and her fellow students that didn't seem to belong to her school and she didn't notice them speaking in other tongues.

She didn't acknowledge their present at lunch or in class, she didn't think about their differences in clothes and manner at all. It was as if she lived in her own little bubble that only Janice could enter and still Lily didn't listen to what Janice was gushing about half of the time. There were simply too many other things going on in her head.

Every now and then, mostly when she lay awake in her bed at night, she thought about her home, what her friends would be doing without her, if her parents had started a massive search for her missing daughter or if someone had maybe even pronounced her dead already. And then she would imagine coming back to everyone; being taken into her parents embrace, seeing Al and James again and her heart would ache so heavily from the insecurity if this fantasy could ever be coming to reality, that she couldn't really breath.

She still trusted every day to be her last at past-Hogwarts though with almost sickening hope.

But nothing happened.

More weeks passed and the headmaster ad no news for her.

She attempted to see Dumbledore about three zillion times, but he was always busy with organising some tournament-thing and told her to be patient.

Being patient wasn't exactly what Lily felt like being any more. She felt like starting a riot.

She wanted to go home. Sure her trip to the past was kind of interesting but when she one day really _bumped_ into her mother alone, she just knew that she needed to get back to her time.

Ginny Weasley was hurrying down the stairs from her bedroom in the Gryffindor tower, she took the last two steps at once, ran through the oddly deserted common room and almost bumped straight into bigger Lily who was absolutely petrified, looking at her and realising had almost just threw her off her feet.

Her mother – and it felt odd thinking 'mother' looking at her – was so small, now she saw her face to face and not from a distance, red curls waving and Ginny looked at Lily with a blazing look that reminded her painfully of home; of how her mother looked, when Lily did something that made her proud.

She felt like staring into her own eyes and the red head looked equally bewildered.

"Sorry", she said with a voice that didn't sound anything like her mothers, "have they started already in the Great Hall?"

"Started what?", Lily heard herself say breathless.

"Nevermind", her mother said and nodded as a good-bye before she continued her run for the exit.

The portrait hadn't swung back fully from Ginny's passage, when Lily rushed through it, heading for Dumbledore's office.

She was over it, meeting her mother had been too strange, too dangerous for both of them.

There had been something in her eyes, something like recognition and that scared the hell out of Lily.

But Dumbledore was not in his office, there was just his chair and the paintings staring at her from the walls. They knew the truth about her, but Dumbledore must've taken care of them not spilling the secret, they all looked tremendously busy when they placed the little red-head and probably remembered that they were not supposed to know anything about her.

She would just tell the headmaster straight that she was through with this crazy exchange, he _had_ to get her home, there was no way she could be stuck here, surrounded by all these people she endangered. Plus she was failing in school big time, if she would be staying for much longer; she would have to do her sixth year all over again. That, though, Lily thought, was her smallest problem at the moment.

She wandered through the office restlessly for about half an hour, checking her clock every two minutes wishing to be able to switch off the thoughts in her mind, before noise from down the stone stairs announced the arrival of the headmaster and he was not alone.

"We can't let him enter", Professor McGonagal said piercingly.

"He was chosen by the goblet of fire, you've heard what Crouch said, there is no turning back", Snape's voice said with not so well hidden excitement. He obviously was happy about the fact that there was no turning back for whomever who was chosen by this goblet of something.

"You have a visitor", that sounded like Professor Moody who was stopping the on-going discussion right there.

Lily's 'Defence Against The Dark Arts'-teacher, whom she found way more weird than Snape entered the office, followed closely by Dumbledore.

"Lily", her Dads mentor said and smiled politely, "what can I do for you?"

"I wanted to talk to you", Lily said firmly, "alone"

"I guess we can do so, when I walk you out", he said nothing but friendly and pointed towards the exit door.

Lily didn't care as long as she was able to talk to him.

"I want to go home already", she said and felt like crying again when they reached the bottom of the stairs. Pleadingly, she looked up to him, big-eyed.

"I have not yet figured out a way how to get you back safe.", Dumbledore seemed really displeased with this confession.

"I've been thinking, Lily, you know...there are things even we can't explain, _people_ make decisions that we can't fully understand. Maybe you were _sent_ here. Maybe you are here for a reason. I'm awfully sorry that I can't tell you anything more right now, but I have some difficult things to sort out. Things concerning your father, so for his sake, please young Miss, try to stick it out for just a tiny bit longer"

And with these words, Dumbledore smiled a "Good-bye for now" at her and left her with her thoughts.


	4. Maybe I AM Here For A Reason

**Chapter Four**

_Maybe I _Am_ Here For A Reason_

On her way back from Dumbledore's office, Lily thought about his words.

What _reason_ could there possibly be for her to be stuck in the past? And what had happened to her Dad that was causing the old man to hold a conference with all the teachers? What had McGonagal said? 'We can't let him enter', Lily could hear her say in her short-term memory. Was she referring to Harry with that 'him'?

She had to find out, but saw little hope in doing so tonight. And she would have to act as Dumbledore pleased her to – keep it low for some more time, so he could help her Dad with whatever trouble he had gotten himself into.

She tried hard to remember Ted's stories and raided her brain for something that had been happening in her Dads fourth year.

"Goblet of...", it resounded inside her head. _Goblet of WHAT?_, she thought with her lips pursed together.

Goblet of Wire? Hire? She had it on her tongue, but it didn't tell her much for she couldn't place it inside a story she'd been told.

Entering the Gryffindor Tower she found Janice reading in front of the fire place, all cuddled up in a blanket on the couch.

The Common Room was again filled with kids as it usually was in the evenings after dinner, but it was louder than usual and absolutely no one took any notice of the young Potter girl. That was still something Lily enjoyed beyond reason.

Lily threw herself next to her new friend and looked at her, still thinking about the goblet-riddle.

She would definitely going to miss her, when she got back to her future.

Janice wasn't like anyone she knew; truly an original.

The suntanned girl looked up to meet Lily's empty stare and seemed bewildered.

"What's up with you? Do I have something in my face?", she asked in a high voice and reached for her nose.

"No...I'm sorry, I've just been...thinking", Lily turned around and looked at the flames.

It really seemed like she had to stick it out a little longer. Or figure out what she was supposed to be doing in order to get away from this time, if doing-so was an option for her to get home for a start. But didn't Dumbledore hint that? Do what she was maybe supposed to be doing and then being sent home...maybe that was her only way to get back (or forth in her case).

Maybe she was there to help her father with whatever problem he had now. If she could ever figure out what the hell that problem was.

_What did Daddy do, when he was fourteen? Goblet of What?_

But then again, if she did have to help him, she would have to skip that 'Don't change the past'-thing once and for all.

"Oh, dear Lily, you know, you really missed something just now, where have you been tonight? Everyone was down at The Great Hall" _Yes, everyone, even Mum_, Lily thought.

"I was going to see Dumbledore...Janice, I have know idea which miraculous events have taken place at the Great Hall, would you be so kind to tell me", she didn't care at all about what had happened, though, she thought noticing the annoyed note in her own voice and felt herself reminded of Tara.

"Well, they picked the champions tonight and guess what...they have four this year...nothing like this has ever happened before, no one knows how the little bloke managed to get his name into the goblet..." - goblet? Why was anybody so off about some mysterious goblet? Suddenly Lily really wanted to hear, what Janice had to say.

"The goblet, anyway, chose Fleur Delacour for Boubatons, Viktor Krum for Durmstrang, Cedric Diggory for Hogwarts and...", Janice paused for a bigger effect, "and Harry Potter! Can you imagine? He's not even seventeen, people were going totally crazy down there, calling him a cheat and all...you are only allowed to enter the Triwizard-Tournament, when you're seventeen or older, you would actually know that if you had showed up at the first meal"

A wave of revelations crushed over Lily, who was not paying attention to Janice any more.

_Oh, god damn!_, she thought. She was so dumb!

IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT WAS HOLY; THE TRIWIZARD-TOURNAMENT!

Dumbledore hadn't always been busy with organising just _some_ tournament! He was organising _the_ bloody TRIWIZARD-TOURNAMENT!

Of course; The Goblet of FIRE...that was the story she hadn't been able to recall. She had actually been told that one so often. By Teddy, who told her how it happened that her father became the youngest Triwizard-Champion in history, that he had to enter it by accident with just fourteen years. Harry Potter had to enter because some one had put his name into the the cup. But who? She couldn't remember.

Anyway, Teddy's girlfriend, Lily's cousin Victoire Weasley had told her the story, too, but from her mothers point of view.

FLEUR DELACOUR, in Lily's time she was her beautiful aunty Fleur Weasley.

Aunt Fleur had met the Weasleys first in the year of the Tournament because she was one of the competitors. It slowly came back to the red-head as she sat at the couch neither moving nor breathing.

She had totally forgotten about the tournament and the story although it had been happening right there, right in front of her eyes. The students from the other magic schools, the way they spoke different languages...all the events concerning the tournament had went completely out of her notion.

She had been engaged way too much to trying as hard as possible to stay away from anyone she knew in the future and worrying about getting home, that she had totally blurred out everything else. How had she been so out of the world not to notice; not to remember?

"You all right?", Janice patted her back and woke her off her trance, "you looked stone-stiff petrified"

Her chuckles made Lily smile a little and she said: "I think realised just now that there's a tournament going on..."

"You...are...really something...", Janice said, "You actually never listen to me, do you? I've been on a bout that for weeks already...How could you miss THAT?"

She looked a bit hurt, but only for a second.

"Well, I guess, I talk so much, that you can miss bits of it sometimes", she laughed and Lily knew she was forgiven.

The following days she tried to read her Dads face when she saw him at breakfast or dinner. He nearly always seemed tense and he noticed people staring at him as she did.

Lily saw most of the people turning their heads to see Harry when he passed the Great Hall and found a movement in his features not very different to how she must have looked, when she came to Hogwarts for the first time. Janice had not been telling rubbish, when she said that people were all over her Dad for being the rebel-enterer of the quest for eternal glory.

Two houses competed for the first place in being mean.

Slytherins (because Harry had never made a secret out of his dislike for their house) were eager to give him a hard time on the corridors and at the meals. They were calling him names and talking badly about him, loud enough so that each and everyone in the castle must've heard them.

The Hufflepuffs were a little more subtle. They had printed magical badges that changed from "Potter Stinks!" to "Digorry Wins!"

Obviously they supported the original Hogwarts candidate, Cedric Diggory, being one of their house mates.

Lily felt utterly offended by anyone wearing the badges and cursed Cedric inside for being made the honest hero in this situation, when her Dad had never wanted to enter in the first place. Sure, she had no reason for being sore at Cedric for it hadn't been his fault. Any of it, neither that her Dad had been thrown into this dangerous quarrel, nor the fact that people were upset about it.

Actually she also hadn't any face to her soreness, because she had never seen Cedric, at least not that she could remember.

She did not know then but it would be just a few evenings away, that she would be asking herself how it had been even possible for her _not_ to notice him.

It was dinner on a Friday night and Lily sat on her usual place next to Janice and Tara when she was doing a brain-workout, how she liked to call it. During the last days she had started to practise how to think of nothing, and really nothing at all. She would think of a white room with white furniture and concentrate very hard on not allowing herself any thoughts or feelings. She did this everywhere; in class, in her bed and here, at the Great Hall. This was a necessary thing to do, because with each passing day she got more tired of being where she was. If she didn't shut her mind, she was always close to a nervous breakdown, which was actually not what one could be having in mind when you where told to 'keep it down'.

Automatically, Lily shovelled a great lot of mashed potatoes on her plate, as she let her eyes glide down the row opposite of her at the Hufflepuff table not really looking at anything until something caught her dull stare, that she simply _had_ to really look at.

In the midst of a group of people, who seemed to have quiet a good time, laughing and suppressing shrieks of amusement, there sat a boy next to a girl that had painful resemblance to Linh. He laughed out loud and Lily caught a better glimpse of his features.

He was beautiful. More than that, he looked like an angel with his short and messy gold-bronze hair, smiling confidently at his friends; no line out of place in his perfect shaped face.

Thanks to her still working reflexes, Lily swallowed the potato mash left in her mouth before her jaw dropped open.

How had she been so awfully distracted, that she didn't notice this piece of cake walking around the castle?

"Who is this?", she asked not taking her eyes of the boy and therefore not able to see the absolute disbelief that spread on Janice's face.

"That's Cedric Diggory...holy cow, Lily? I've showed him to you the first time we had dinner together" Her voice told how shocked she was from her friends ignorance.

"Really? I don't remember...have I said something back then?", Lily still couldn't turn to look at Janice.

"Hmm, now that you ask..I think you just said 'all right' and didn't even look at him...well, I told you he's gorgeous"

"I have no words", Lily gasped.

"That next to him is his girlfriend Cho, by the way", Tara said coolly and totally ruined Lily's blooming daydreams. Anyway, it didn't keep her eyes from being glued to him.

Then all of the sudden, Cedric turned around to speak to Cho and he caught Lily's stupid expression of admiration and sheer amazement, with her mouth popped open and he laughed quietly, pulling up one eyebrow.

The red-haired girl wanted to die right on the spot. She rapidly turned away and threw her full cup of pumpkin juice off the table onto her skirt and felt too silly to stay at dinner one more second.

As she got up, she barely noticed the chuckles around the tables, of course she looked like she'd peed her pants – or her skirt more likely.

So much for not gaining any unnecessary attention, she thought to herself as she walked up the stairs to her bedroom with shaking legs and threw herself on the bed with all her clothes on. One blink of an eye had vanished all her thoughts of going home away from her mind for this night, as it seemed.

_He must think, I'm a complete moron_, she said to herself a couple hours of turning from one side to the other later, staring at the fabric on top of her bed.

Finally closing her eyes with the lack of sleep of the last weeks taking their toll, she imagined the upcoming first Task of the Tournament and hoped that pretty Cedric wouldn't get hurt as a dim shadow of knowledge entered her mind, but she was vast asleep before she could catch it.

It was the first time she didn't think of how she wished to be in her bed in London when she went to sleep since she had come there.

Lily was wide awake with the first shade of sunshine that came trough the girls dorm windows. The day of the first task had come quickly, the whole Gryffindor house was excited about 'their' candidate, Harry Potter, not alike the other houses who were still saying he was an unfair cheater. His daughter, though, was torn between crossing her fingers for him and Cedric, whom she would have liked to see winning today's task, too.

Thinking this, she was a little bit disgusted from her own teenage-crush-like behaviour.

_Geez, Lilz, get it together, you haven't even talked to him. You're acting like a twelve-year-old! Like he was someone of a boyband and you where fancying him. You're pathetic!_

Sighing, she lifted herself off the bed and walked sleepy towards her wardrobe, where her new every-day-clothes lie, that Dumbledore had been organizing for her.

Of course, she didn't have a crush on Cedric Diggory, who would be so stupid? He was here and she would soon be gone, he was a star at Hogwarts and she was a no-one (again her chest filled with joy over that fact) and anyway...it was impossible. Completely impossible.

She put on a pair of dark red jeans, a huge grey t-shirt and a black costume-vest over it, her hair fell loosely over her shoulders and looking into the mirror, she decided that she had seen worse days.

"Janice, wake up", she whispered, "get dressed, we gotta go now if we want to have good seats. Come on"

"Waah...", Janice moaned half asleep, "go away!"

"Can't do that, let's go now...NOW!"

"All right, all right...now you're all exited. Let me get dressed first, If you allow", Janice replied with her eyes still closed.

Lily found it took forever until her friend was finally ready to go and even when they left the tower, the Potter girl was thinking how much too slow they were moving. She didn't want to miss any second of the Tournament. Ted had always told those crazy stories of the Dragon Task. And if she recalled it the right way, today would actually be the day of the dragons.

How she would enjoy telling Teddy how she'd seen all of it with her own eyes; then she would be doing the story-telling and he would listen open-mouthed.

On their way to the arena on the hills, which Hogwarts had built up especially for the tournament, Janice looked at Lily up and down.

"You're all dressed up...'s there someone you want to impress?"

"No...how come you think that?", Lily thought she had sounded convincingly nonchalant widely ignoring her two-octaves-higher-than-usual-voice, but she felt her cheeks getting crimson and wanted to punch herself for it.

"No way, Lily...you _do_ want to impress someone...Tell. Me. All. About. Him."

"There's not much to say...he's got a girlfriend anyway", she moved her hand as if throwing a used handkerchief away.

"Who is it then?", Janice was slow and curious.

"Let's say...he's school royalty while I'm the mouse in the shadows", her looks where doing the rest of the talking.

"No...no...no, you're not!", Janice screamed way louder than Lily could stand.

"Won't you shut up", she whispered through her teeth, grabbing Janice's arm forcefully.

"All right...Ouch, Lily, you're cutting the blood flow"

Lily let go of the girls arm and turned away.

"You actually have a crush on Cedric Digorry...well, honey, I'd suggest you get in line and pull a number...", she said only for Lily to hear.

"I'm not having any hopes up. I'll probably won't even talk to him ever in my life"

Lily had absolutely no idea why she had just told her that. She wasn't crushing on him.

But she kind of enjoyed talking to Janice about something that wasn't a complete lie, because Cedric really was cute and there was something about him. In a normal situation, Lily would probably have fallen head over heals, but this was anything but normal.

What point was there in falling for someone you didn't know at all and anyway, if he lived more than ten years before you yourself did and in her time would be her parents age, it was just useless even considering it. Lily widely ignored her fastened heartbeat and tried to get back into her white furnished dull-room.

They reached the stadium a couple minutes later and actually got the best seats in first row with a brilliant overview and they were the first to sit.

The ranks filled with students and teachers and it seemed like forever until Hagrid and a few teachers and people that weren't from the school, brought in the cage with the first dragon and set it free into the arena.

"Janice, who's up first?", Lily asked breathlessly at the sight of the frightening animal, excited about the task and a little scared for her father.

"I don't know...I think we'll know when he or she comes out"

Lily couldn't really breath and jumped up from her seat from shock as a canon shot announced the first contestant.

"CEDRIC DIGORRY", said the headmasters voice aloud.

Cedric entered the arena and looked nothing like the cocky self-confident picture of a guy he was when she'd seen him the days before; he looked frightened now, frightened and nervous.

The look on his face pained Lily a little inside but she couldn't look at him for long, because the dragon came to bursting life and went for Cedric who reacted immediately and ran left as the monster approached him.

The crowd started cheering him up, yelling and singing but Lily couldn't make a sound.

Cedric was fast, but the dragon was faster. He cut him off after ten steps and threw him on the ground with one tiny push of his paw. The gold-haired boy lay flat on his back and looked up to the creature, that was about to throw itself upon him.

No, Lily wasn't the only one, who held her breath. The very second the dragon buckled down for Cedric a biting hot pain went through Lily's upper body into her head. It felt like a steaming hot snake cradled up to her throat as she remembered.

"He's going to die", it slipped out of her, her face motionless and her hands clenched to fists.

"No, look, he's lifting the thing up! It's the _Levicorpus _spell!", Janice said not knowing what Lily meant. There was no way she could have known that. No one did except of Lily Potter.

Every good story needs some tragic adding to the happy ending. Ted's stories were good stories and when he told about the Triwizard-Tournament he was always putting much emphasis on her fathers triumph but he never forgot about the tragic. Someone had died in this tournament. Someone got killed.

That someone's name was Cedric Diggory.

Strong, brave, true-hearted, Cedric, who just collected the shiny golden egg which the dragon failed to protect. He just won the first task. He was injured, not badly but the monster got him good enough to have McGonagal order him to be taken back to the castle.

Lily just noticed this because Cedric disappeared out of her sight. Beautiful Cedric.

He was going to die. At the age of seventeen? That was cruel, more than that, it was criminal. No one could want this, no one could let that happen.

_She_ couldn't let that happen. And she wouldn't.

Lily jumped up from her seat and started running. "Hey?", she heard Janice yell after her but she didn't stop to explain, she had to get to Cedric right away.

She was so sure now, it all made sense, if it was like Dumbledore said, if she was supposed to be here, if this was a fate-thing, then it must've been her fate to do something good.

Spare an innocent from dying. Spare her father the guilt of not being able to save Cedric like so many others.

But not alike Cedric, all the others, like uncle Fred and Teddy's parents, had had a choice and knew what they were getting themselves into.

Cedric had no idea that he had less than half a year to live, he didn't want to face Voldemort, he didn't even knew about the Dark Lords growing powers.

He was purely innocent and his death was simply in vain. So maybe she was really there for a reason.

Lily was supposed to save Cedric and she would. She couldn't let him die, he had a bright future ahead of him and he was so beautiful, it would be such a waste. This second, Lily made a choice.

It did not matter how long she had to stay, it did not matter how much she missed her family, her friends, her world...nothing mattered but to save Cedric. And she would, even if it killed her.

When the red-head reached the castle, she headed straight for the hospital wing, where they would've brought Cedric first supposedly. Her head was filled with her new consideration and its overwhelming logic.

Now Madame Pomfrey exited into the corridor and spotted Lily right away.

"Can I help you, dear?", she asked softly.

"Er...yes...I have...a...terrible headache", Lily lied – this time convincingly, she had finally figure out how lying worked – and reached for her head as if to rub the pain away, "I wanted to watch the Tournament and halfway-through it started to hurt"

"Well, little miss, I'd suggest you follow me inside and I see what I can do for you"

"Thank you very much", Lily replied and really meant it.

She followed the vase shaped nurse inside the room and saw Cedric leaning on his beds end looking out of the window as if he thought he could spot the other competitors in their struggle with the dragons from here. He didn't even look away to see who the new to-be-treated student next to him was. Lily was hypnotized by his handsome head once again. She had never seen him from that close. He was stunningly all in measure. Like an old masterpiece. Like _David_.

"My dear, I fear I have to get back", Madame Pomfrey said, looking at the dragon flying above the stadium with something in his fist that had a remarkable resemblance to Lily's aunt Fleur.

Cedric saw the scene, too and let out a gasp, still looking out of the window.

"You two be okay here, won't you?", she said and Lily nodded reassuringly, focusing Cedric, before the old lady turned to leave.

The door closed loudly and the little girl just stood in the middle of the room for a while, not really sure how to start the talking.

Cedric still seemed fully ignorant of her presence.

"Er...Cedric", she started off weakly, but at least he turned around to face her.

He flinched a little, and Lily knew that he recognized her from that night at dinner.

"Hi", he said politely but his looks were more like saying: "_Why do you speak with me?_"

"Hmm...I sort of wanted to talk to you", how was she going to put it into words so he would believe her?

"Go ahead, talk", he said generously as if it was some kind of honour to be allowed to have a conversation with him. Now it was Lily's turn to raise an eyebrow.

_What's that attitude about?_ Lily wondered if she had been too quick with promising herself to safe him even if it killed her.

"Sorry, just go ahead, what did you want to tell me,..."

He said apologetically for his bluntness, knowing how it must've come across and pulled a face that was supposed to say, that he wanted to know her name to finish his sentence.

"Lily", she said quietly, struck by his winning smile and all doubts were swept away. Just for this smile he was totally worth any means of saving in the world.

"Right, tell me, Lily" Lily got goosebumps all over her body when he said her name and it took her a little while to focus on her planed speech and stop arguing with herself about her stupid childish behaviour.

"You're in great danger", she started and made a couple steps towards his bed, "this Tournament, it's dangerous"

"I know it is, I didn't enter light-hearted, Lily"

"I'm not saying you did, it's just...please quit"

"What?", he almost laughed out the word.

"You have to exit the competition right now", she insisted and was well aware of how silly it must've sounded to him.

"Why would I? I can handle this, you know, I'm a big boy and I did well out there and anyway, who are you to tell me, I don't even know you", his features hardened and his usual sensual lips became a thin line.

"I can't tell you that, please just believe me, you...you will die if you continue this", Lily said desperately and he looked more confused than angry as he stepped out of the bed a little weakly and stepped up in front of her.

He stood merely ten inches away from her, looked down at her face and reminded Lily utterly of Corey, when he tried to figure the sense to her words.

"So I'll die, huh?"

"Yes...Look, I'm not...I can't tell you how I know, I just do. Please just trust me", she looked at him pleadingly.

"You're funny", he said into the blue and smiled and it was sure, that he wouldn't listen to her.

Lily coughed at the silky tone his voice had got saying this. After the silk came silence, he just looked at her, saying nothing. For eternity as it seemed.

_Now this didn't work_, Lily thought still captivated by his eyes, still staring up to his face, trembling over her own feelings, _if he won't quit, I must save him without his notion, I guess_.

"Will you let me help you figure out the next task?", she asked bluntly not expecting much of an answer really.

"You think you can help me with that?", he made a gesture towards the golden egg he had to steal from the furious dragon, that was supposed to carry the hints to solve the next challenge.

"Sure", Lily said and knew that there was no way in hell she could.

"Okay, then tell me, what's that supposed to tell me", he strove back from her and reached for the egg and as he did so, the wind his movement caused came to Lily's nostrils and filled it with a scent that made her shiver slightly and she had to pull herself together again when he came back to her, carrying the egg.

_Damn, Lily, get over it, already! He's just a pretty innocent to be saved..._

He looked at her almost hopefully but in a weird way, as if he expected some reaction but Lily couldn't figure out which.

_Maybe he wants me to applaud_, she thought and raised her hands thoughtlessly to clap them together when Cedric made a swift movement with his hand and the shimmering thing popped open.

Lily shrieked in pain, almost louder than the egg. She didn't know how it worked but the egg made a bone-shivering noise like a hundred cats sliding down a blackboard on their claws.

It almost caused her physical pain. She just prayed for it to stop and before she had finished the thought, it _did_ stop because Cedric had put the yelling piece of hell back together, closed it and just grinned at her.

"So, what is my next task, my little helper?", he said jokingly.

"You're supposed to deliver a Harpy's baby?"

Cedric started laughing again and fixed his eyes on Lily's once over.

"Why do you want to help me?", he asked suddenly.

"Oh, I dunno...maybe I want a piece of that 'eternal glory' cake", she improvised.

_Because I want to save your bloody life, idiot._

"And you think I need more help than Fleur Delacour or let's say, Mister Potter?", the question didn't sound harsh at all but it made Lily trip.

"Da...Harry's just fine, he can take care of himself"

Now Cedric seemed offended: "And I can't take care of myself?", he raised his voice a little,"I'm a seventh grader and he is what? Fourteen? You mean he could do anything that I can't?"

"No...Cedric, I didn't mean it that way", she tried to come up with something, anything to make up the stupid thing she had just said, "All I wanted to say is, that I don't want to help him, I'd rather help you, because I think you have an _actual_ chance of winning this...rather than that...little boy"

He focussed her for an instant and then accepted her wide lie and a smile spread around his gorgeous face once again.

"Will you let me help you?", Lily questioned him with her heart beating so loud that she was sure, Snape could hear it in his cellar.

Cedric pulled a riddle-like face.

"Let's hear your qualifications", he teased.

"Well...", _why do I always have to come up with something?_, "I'm smart, I'm a quick thinker and good in researching and if I'm committing to something I never let go"

He was still smiling, "Okay, the next task is two months from now, I suggest we meet on Saturday to try figure this one out and see if you can keep up what you're promising" _So soon?_

"Is it always so easy to persuade you?", Lily wondered shaking her head at him.

Faster than she could realise it he bowed down to her and stopped next to ear, so close that she could feel his warm breath running down her neck as he whispered:

"It certainly helps, if I'm approached by someone like you"

As quick as he had been so close to her that all other sounds were drowned by that of her heartbeat, he was quick to back away and head for the door, hobbling a little.

"And now you're leaving", Lily stated uselessly.

Cedric turned round and smiled his cocky boy-of-the-world-smile and said loud enough so she, at the other side of the room could hear:

"I must prepare myself for Saturday, right?", and he held up the egg.

_So must I_, Lily thought to herself and grunted in a sheer lack of self control right after he had left the room.

The days until Saturday just seemed to stretch into eternity and when it was Friday finally, Lily was a nervous wrack.

She got through the classes more in some kind of daydream than actually paying any attention, she skipped lunch because she wasn't feeling well enough to face Cedric, she had avoided him the last days for some reason she didn't even understand herself, probably because she didn't want to be even more attached to her stupid, irrational romantic feelings for him and because she couldn't stand the way he smelled. It was just too much.

His scent was musky as the woods and mellifluous like a fifty square field of wild flowers at the same time and she just recognized it everywhere at any time.

Walking through classrooms or corridors...it was as if she could feel him near all the time and it made her go insane because her heart would always skip about two beats.

'Pathetic' was the only word to properly describe her state of mind.

And seeing his perfect face and body walking across the Great Hall, beaming and coolly confident didn't help her much either, when she tried to figure out the mystery about the screaming egg and figure out a way to save this prince of Hogwarts.

She tried to recall the whole story already...but she and Ted hadn't spoken much about the past since he finished his school two years ago. He came around for dinner almost every week still but Lily had always preferred to do the "grown-up"-talk with him now that she was sixteen. So no scary stories heard for some time whatsoever.

Anyhow, the story went like this from this point on; Harry and the others would pass the second task except for Fleur and then some old guy would die and after that, the third task would take place.

It would be a maze, in there would be the Triwizard-Cup, the winning cup. And it would be a portkey and take Harry and Cedric to a cemetery and there, Cedric would be killed by Voldemort.

If she would only remember who was the traitor in this story. She tried so hard to find the answer inside her memories that it gave her headaches. Ultimately she would just have to come up with a way to keep Cedric from entering the maze but at first she would take care of the second task.

That was harder then she thought it would be, though because she had no clue were to start. All she had was a screaming egg and ...well, that was really all she had. _Bloody egg!_

Before dinner, Janice entered the girls dorms and found Lily on her bed with a bunch of books lying in front of her.

"Lily, I have no idea how you pulled of that one, but Cedric Digorry is waiting for you outside" Camille snorted uncontrolled and stared at her feet.

"Oh no", Lily said in a piercing high organ-like tone, again about four octaves higher than her usual speaking voice and didn't care much about Camille's breaking heart.

She hurried from the bed and fixed her hair into a knot at the back of her head, checked her reflection in the mirror and mumbled "must do".

Janice was left behind, looking absolutely surprised.

Cedric stood in front of the Gryffindor portrait and ignored that the fat lady probably stripped him from all his clothes in her mind, staring at him with her round piggy eyes.

Lily smiled her brightest "Hello" and he did the same.

"How can I help you?", Lily asked, still trying to get herself to function.

_What is he doing here?_

"I just wanted to check if you didn't forget our appointment tomorrow"

"_Appointment_?"

" Would you like me to say 'date'?", he teased.

"I don't think your girlfriend would like to hear that so much", Lily said airily and checked his reaction. It was too weird referring to Mrs Chang-Carter as his 'girlfriend'.

For an instant his charming smile and his dimples disappeared but where back immediately as he changed the subject.

"Do you want to walk a little with me?"

"Like wandering through the castle?", Lily asked a little irritated by the thought of it.

"More like going 'round the grounds and skipping dinner", he smiled brightly and Lily knew that she couldn't have said 'no' even if she had wanted to. What was he up to? And why was everyone here so keen on skipping the meals?

They walked together mostly quiet until they reached the lake and he sat down next to a tree, the red twilight making his face glisten.

He was looking more like a fantastic creature of perfect beauty than a real boy one could really touch.

Lily sat down next to him and studied his perfect face once again. She imaged herself sitting there forever, just looking at him for he rest of her life.

"So how come we're here?", she said after a while to fill the silence.

"I don't know, I just wanted to hang out a bit", Cedric said casually.

"Why?", Lily asked as if he had just announced that he was going to marry an elk.

"Because, I thought you could hang out with your friends"

"So I'm something like your friend now?", she was still baffled.

"Well, yeah? I mean, unless you don't want to be friends with me", he sighed pulling up his shoulders as if he didn't care at all.

He was acting like Lily's brother James now...the stupid show-off. If he hadn't been beautiful enough to cause her body to deny every movement by fascination, Lily would have turned to leave.

He closed his eyes and leaned back against the tree.

"Tell me Lily...where are you from? I've never noticed you until this year...so tell me all about you", his silky voice dazzled her. _Why so curious?_

"My...name is Lily Collins and my family lived in South Africa, but my Dad got a job at a muggle firm in London and that's why we moved here, I turned sixteen two months ago and I like music and magic and my Mom's cooking", she had the impression to have told a good story because Cedric didn't seem superstitious in any way, just interested.

Still, she had practised this speech often enough.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?", he asked.

"Two older brothers, they're both done with school...do you?"

"I have a sister, Simone...but she is a squib.", he said in a lower voice.

"Oh...'s that hard for her?", he was surprisingly open with her...she had never met someone that was opening up to her so fast and that was really something, seeing as she was most of the time mingled in a crowd with people spilling their darkest secrets, when they met her for the first time. They hoped to get her to be their friend by almost offending honesty.

But Cedric was different, he was not telling her secrets right now, he was telling her things that mattered to him. It was as if he had skipped the first months of getting to know each other and it made Lily feel like she'd known him for ever.

"Sometimes, I think it's hard for her, but she lives in the muggle world and she's happy with her life this way, so I think it's okay, she's thirteen now...maybe it will be harder someday"

"So, do you have any idea about the egg yet?", Lily asked him after a pause, annoyed that her brain couldn't produce smarter words.

"Nope, I'd hoped you did", he said opening his eyes again finally, looking at her with ocean deep green-greyish eyes.

"Sort of, but we would have to test that tomorrow", Lily stated.

"When?"

"Whenever you like", she was absolutely honest for once.

"I'd say around noon", Cedric smiled and then reached for her leg, he patted it twice,"Thank you very much, mate"

When Lily was able to speak again she said: "You're welcome" and turned away to hide her blushing face.

_Next Chapter_: **Bubbles and Butterflies**


	5. Bubbles And Butterflies

Chapter Five

Bubbles And Butterflies

When the tower clock of Hogwarts castle announced the beginning of the second half of the day, Lily Potter sat in the Gryffindor tower set and ready, waiting for Cedric Diggory.

She had no idea how she even got him to meet up with her. All she promised him was to help him with winning the Triwizard-Tournament and all she promised herself was to hinder him from doing exactly that. Because she was the only person in the world who knew that this competition for eternal glory would lead to Cedric being murdered.

She had made the decision to save him by any means, whatever it may took. But Cedric simply refused to believe her warnings and actually Lily couldn't blame him because she could only tell him that he would die and not how she knew so.

In order to save him despite the fact, that he wouldn't stay out of the tournament, the red-head offered him her help in figuring out the next test, the second of three.

Originally, no one could have been better of an help than Lily, coming from the future, being told the story of the tournament about a million times but matter of factly she was no help at all, because the second task was described nothing but inchoate by her Dads godson Ted Lupin whom it was due to that she knew anything about the Triwizard challenges at all.

Teddy never really focussed his story-telling on the second task because the rest of the whole tale was far more exciting...the part where Cedric got killed. Perfect Cedric.

Lily was restraining herself once over from imagining him, leaning down, getting closer and closer to her face, parting his lips and tenderly..._STOP!_

She couldn't risk falling in love. Not with him, not here, not _now_.

It would only cause her heart to break when she had to leave him – or when her attempt to save him failed. Her eyes widened by the thought of it; no, there was no way that she would fail.

She was going to save him. It was going to work and then beautiful, flawless Cedric could live and she would leave and forget him for good.

Around the small girl, noise arouse as Camille came down the stairs, talking to Angelina Johnson, who would later be Mrs George Weasley and mother of Lily's cousins Fred and Roxanne.

"-she's not even pretty, I don't see how Cedric likes her...", Camille said bitterly with envy spilling from her mouth and in no way aware of the fact that the object of her anger sat on the couch and heard every word she spit out.

"Camille, she's not ugly", Angelina said and Lily resolved to give her aunty a big hug, when she got back to her time.

Camille was mad at her, that was certain, there was no other person she could be talking about. It must've been a bit of a shock for the mousy one that Cedric had come to see Lily instead of her the night before.

"Yeah, whatever.. She's got nothing someone like Cedric could want, I mean...Lily Collins...what kind of name is that anyway? The stupid, little -", she was cut off by something Lily couldn't see, sitting opposite of her giving her the backside.

"Camille?", said Janice a little disgusted and Lily turned to see what was going on.

Her heartbeat tripped yet another time, next to Janice who had obviously just stepped on the scene, stood the tall bronze-haired boy Camille was and Lily _was NOT_ crushing on.

Lily let out a gasp to let them all know she was there and Camille's little mousy face froze just before she started to study her own shoes intensively.

Angelina looked at the weird ensemble for a short while and then spotted George at the other side of the room. Lily wasn't sure but she thought that her future-aunt had the smallest hint of a smile on her face as she walked towards him; Camille had really blown it there.

Janice shook her head at her and then faced Lily.

"He came to pick _you_ up", she emphasised the 'you' nodding at the mouse-girl.

Cedric smiled wryly and seemed a little uncomfortable, guessing that this was in some weird way about him.

Lily tried to smile to make the situation less awkward and at the same time pretending that Camille's worries about what Cedric could want from her or the other way around had no point at all.

"Er...you ready?", Cedric asked and she sank into his eyes.

"Sure", was the little too excited response for Lily's not-in-love-measure. She had her eyes downcast as she followed him out of the common room.

"Who was this and why is she so mad at you?", Cedric asked her addled after they'd passed the portrait, looking as though he was in pain, avoiding the question, why that girl had considered if he would be needing Lily or not.

"Um, that was Camille and she's...well...she is jealous of me because we hang out...you and me", now Lily didn't care if she maybe told him Camille's biggest secret, after all Miss Mouse had said some very unpleasant things about her.

"Oh...well...we're doing nothing, are we?", he said and she got the idea that she'd never even met him before the way he said this almost a little afraid. He looked down at her and then coughed.

He seemed like a total different person furrowing his brow waiting for her reassuring.

"No...no...I mean, we're just hanging out", Lily said looking equally confused.

_Where is this coming from? He's not actually ...feeling me out? No...no way, he couldn't be..._

Her thoughts washed over her in a crazy vortex. Why was he acting like this? Was he just shocked by the fact that people where thinking him and Lily had something going on? Was he afraid, Cho would find out and consider it cheating? Or was he...maybe interested...in...her?

Lily tried her hardest to shake these thoughts off her brain and pretended to have gotten over the strange encounter with Camille and Cedric's weird reaction she still couldn't put in any concluding context when she lay her head to the right, gesturing the handsome boy to follow her down the corridor.

"So", she started and sounded very settled and calm to her own relief, "I've been doing some thinking and a quite lot of reading"

"And you found out...?", Cedric's voice showed no sign of his own struggle, if he had one going on, Lily thought and eyed him for a moment; his fair features back to their normal beauty, again unaffected by anything as it seemed.

"I figured, that maybe you have to do something with the egg if you want to understand the...message", the truth was that she remembered that Ted had said something about putting the thing into something, but her memory would spit out into _what_ they've put it.

"You see, it must be about the yelling, that's apparently the only thing the gadget can do, so all the screaming must be telling us the clues, right?", Lily wanted to make sure he could follow, but she didn't doubt it really.

They walked down the moving stairs, and she used a lot of effort to look where she was going, instead of staring at Cedric.

"Right", he smiled, suggesting that her updating him had been unnecessary.

"Okay, that's when I thought...maybe we could put it somewhere where it's all quiet", that was Lily's first shot and she wasn't too convinced about it but it was worth a try, "because we maybe can listen to it better...you know, when there's nothing...distracting us"

"Which place do you suggest?", Cedric asked speeding his steps as they passed the gathering of students in the arcade outside the castle as if he didn't want to be seen with her.

"I thought...the woods maybe", she answered curtly, feeling insulted by his behaviour.

Would he be getting over it? He could hang out with her if he wished, it wasn't like they were cheating on anyone. They did nothing one could be mad about!

"The woods?", he asked when they were already on the bridge heading to Hagrid's place, "but it's forbidden to enter the woods"

"Oh come on...", Lily rolled her eyes, if they could all skip dinner just like this they could go to the forbidden forest if they wished to.

What was she supposed to make of this guy? He was simply elliptical, when he talked he seemed always confident, always sure about himself, he spoke truthfully and told her things that you wouldn't tell someone you've just met. Then, he freaked out if someone hinted that he and her had something going to make someone jealous and ran away from crowds of people when they were together, yet asking her to meet up with him. It made no sense.

"I'm sorry", he said suddenly as they took the first steps into the forest.

It smelled fresh and sweetly and mixed up with Cedric's scent into a fragrance Lily could hardly stand.

Originally angry at his stupid way of acting, she literally felt herself swell with joy now, breathing, tasting the wonderful odour. Added up to her confusion about his character, her almost addictive desire to take in all the aroma that was filling the air made her head totally dizzy and Cedric was apologizing for something else. Something Lily didn't know yet again.

"For what?", she said, still drowned in her own mind and the taste of his tongue she caught herself imagining caressing hers. She did this occasionally for a couple of days now and cursed herself for it every single time.

"I was not trying to hide that I was hanging out with you up there in the castle. I know it looked like it, but it wasn't what I was trying to do", he stated all silkily and she just stopped walking, looking at his back because he hadn't noticed her rapid stop. How could he have known that she was thinking he did exactly what he just said 'sorry' for? Was she so obvious?

"I've seen the look on your face", he said and still sounded apologetic answering another question she hadn't asked aloud.

"Do you read minds?", she asked baffled.

"Usually not...but you, Lily Collins, are an open book. Your displeasure was written on your forehead in capital letters", he chuckled and stopped his walk, too.

"Well, you seemed very eager to get away from our dear school mates", the girl said acidulous and weirdly untouched by his affectionate grin. If she was this open book, he wanted her to be, she made sure that he got her message. She was not risking her life for someone who was disapproving her and was embarrassed to be seen with her. She could be snotty, too.

His face responded her tone with a slight tremor of the corners of his mouth and when he continued speaking, he sounded comforting: "I indeed wanted to get away. Because you see...people talk. And if this Camille-person starts to spread the word about us, _you_ will have everyone on your back just like I have them there now. I'm used to this already since they've been doing it for a little while with all the champions – even worse with Potter – but I wouldn't want you to be followed by students and reporters that want to see a little gossip happen. At least I knew what I was getting myself into. You do not, so it'll be better for you, if we just keep it low"

_Keeping it low once again_, she thought and huffed involuntarily.

But his speech sounded sincere enough and Lily decided, her lips pursed, to believe him and as she finally smiled wryly at him and he responded with a happy smirk, her anger flew off to a very distant place.

He wanted to protect her from the unasked for limelight a friendship with him would force itself onto her. It was pretty funny. They both wanted to save each other from something right now, only that Lily wouldn't die if Cedric didn't succeed.

"You're forgiven"; she joked and started her walk again. He waited until she was beside him and then walked along.

"Thank you...you know, it's that...Cho is suffering from the constant intrusion and questions and everything and I hate to see her so pained by all that. And I didn't want any of my friends to go through this, too. I feel so bad for her. When you're with someone you shouldn't be causing them pain"

Somewhere inside Lily's chest she believed to hear something crack.

Cho. Cho was still his girlfriend. And would remain to be, probably.

But what was she sad about? Did she imagine him to leave her, really? For her? For stupid, ugly Lily Potter that had nothing to offer and would be gone soon? Gone to a world in which he didn't exist for now, where – if she could save him – he was going to be older than her own father.

It was not going to happen.

_Bad bad bad idea_, she jelled at her own heart which steadily refused to listen more accurate by any minute she spent with him.

The same old reasoning was spinning around in her head and Cedric walked beside her quietly, thinking his own thoughts.

"So shall I open the egg now?", with a suave movement he took the shiny piece out of his backpack and held it up in front of them.

"Open it", Lily ordered determinedly.

A piercing, agonising shriek filled the forbidden forest and caused a covey of black birds to rush out of their trees and Lily to shut her ears in pain.

Cedric jumped up and closed the golden oval again, screaming "Doesn't work!"

"I know", Lily yelled back at him into perfect silence.

He laughed and she ripped her hands from her ears, blushing.

"No need to yell at me", laughed Cedric, flung one arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer.

"Do you have any other ideas?"

"Put it _in_ the ground?", she guessed, aggravated by her racing heart as he held her tight to his side.

The bronzed-headed boy let go off her, kneed down on the dry forest ground, some sticks breaking with a curt noise under his weight and started digging a whole.

That had been Lily's second guess. Maybe the egg would reveal its secret when it was put into dirty soil.

Airily, Cedric let the egg slip off his grip into the free space he had just dug free and awaited Lily's encouraging words.

"Go on, open it...I'm deaf now, anyway", she sat down beside him.

For another short moment Lily felt like her head was going to explode.

"Bloody Hell", she barked after Cedric had fixed the thing back together, "this is never going to work"

"It's taunting...how old do you have to get to figure out a stupid riddle? I have no idea what to do.", Cedric looked crestfallen and disappointed.

"I'm sorry", she tried to catch his eye but he turned his face away from her.

"What do you say 'sorry' for? You're the one of us, that had at least _some_ ideas...I've come up with absolutely nothing yet. I'm so...useless and dumb. How am I going to last ten seconds in this tournament, if I can't even get my hands on these clues in there?", he threw the egg a few feet away from them. Lily was more than surprised by his open outburst of self-doubt and frustration. Momentarily she opened her mouth to contradict but he cut her off.

"No! Don't say I'll figure it out...I won't. Gosh...Lily, I really really need your help. I...I can't think straight...I'm such an idiot, why do I get myself into situations I can't handle?"

The Potter girl took a few beats until she spoke, calm and emphatic: "Ced...why do you put so much pressure on yourself? You just got this piece of hell a week ago. A week ago, Cedric! The next task is two _months_ from now. Why such a hurry? Do you really think the others have any idea? You are not stupid just because you haven't found the answer yet...no one could demand that of you"

"You have no idea", he said bitterly and showed her his face again. He looked like he did earlier this day, when they stood in front of the fat lady's portrait. When he continued his voice showed how serious he was and how tired.

"I was always the best at everything, the fastest on a broom, the quickest with potions, the wittiest with spells. I don't say this to show off. That's just how it was...naturally. So people expect things of me. Every day they expect all these great things and I can't...you know, I can't be great all the time. I screw up sometimes. Big time. But they don't...they never...see, they just believe because it's me, because I'm Cedric Diggory, this whole thing would be easy for me, but it's not"

Lily felt an almost overwhelming urge to hug him and she knew so well, what he was talking about. People had always expected greatness from her, being who she was...a Potter.

"You always say 'people'", she sounded like her mother, when she'd comforted little Lily after coming back from her first semester at Hogwarts, all buried under high expectations she couldn't live up to, "but 'people' don't matter. They don't matter at all. Who cares what people think of you? The only thing that's truly important is that you can look into the mirror and don't regret what you've done and who you are...to hell with what _they _all expect"

"But you expect things from me, don't you? That's what you said, you wanted to help me, because you thought I could win this, so you expect me to actually be able to do so", he insisted childishly.

Lily shook her head softly and robbed a little closer to him, her voice was nothing more than a whisper: "I don't expect anything"

He lifted his head and their eyes met, just few inches apart. Lily held her breath. He was simply marvellous, all the cockiness was nothing but self-protection, nothing but a game he played so he wouldn't have to tell everybody that he felt lousy inside. He was so breathtakingly honest with her, it was melting her like chocolate left in the sun.

And then, after a blink of an eye, his lips moved upwards into a smile.

"You are really something else", he spoke under his breath.

Like a flash-back, Lily felt drenched into her own fantasy – his lips so close to hers, smiling the sweetest smile along with his eyes, his breath reaching her neck – she had almost leaned forward waiting for him to kiss her with her eyes closed, when he was on his feet in a seconds notice, lifting her from hers at the next.

"Let's go...I think we'll be getting nowhere further today", he said when he picked up the egg.

_Pity._

"You're not going to tell anyone what a wimpy fool I am, are you?", he asked ironical, his voice giving away a little bit of true concern.

"No, why would I?", Lily answered as they exited the forest.

"Well, there are a lot of people who would pay you a quiet lot for this information...this Rita Skeeter of the _Daily Prophet_ is a downright git; she would throw galleons after you for any information about me"

Lily smirked again: "You can trust me, Cedric"

"Thanks", he said and gave her a thoughtful appreciative nod, "really"

When Lily went to bed that night, her head was spinning from all the memories of him and she always felt like laughing when she heard Camille turning from side to side, finding no sleep for other reasons.

Should she suffer heart-broken, Lily didn't care.

And she also stopped to care about the impossibility of her feelings for him. She was here now, wasn't she? And crushing on him didn't mean that anything would develop from there on, did it? Sure, she would probably feel like dying when she had to leave him but...as long as it lasted it felt good. There was no way to deny it any more now, anyway. He got her good. Really good. It was useless...absolutely pointless to lie it away.

She had undeniably fallen for Cedric Diggory. Totally, head over heals, irrational and against all odds.

Hot sensations washed over her when she remembered the way he had looked at her down in the forbidden forest, his smile flooding her mind like water...

_water_..._WATER! You've got to put the egg into the water! _

Lily sat up straight and waited for her vision to get used to the darkness before she hurried out of the dorms, down the stairs and through the common room on her bare feet.

That was the solution...The second task took place in the Great Lake...how had she been able to forget? She had to see Cedric immediately.

The castle was dead silent and the little feet made almost no sound as Lily paced through the corridors. She knew that the Hufflepuffs lived in the cellar, near the kitchens. Eager to be faster, she almost fell down the stairs, but luckily got hold of the handrail before she tripped. Cedric would be so happy to hear, she was sure of that. She could bet, that they'd be the first to have figured the egg out.

And then, Cedric would be thankful and proud and just might...maybe he would even hug her.

She panted, images of him struck her, as she stood in front of the still life portrait that was the entrance to the Hufflepuff accommodations. The man sitting behind the richly decorated and stuffed table snorted comfortably and Lily almost felt bad for waking him up although he was just painted magic.

She cleared her throat and waited for a response from inside the frame. Louder snorting was the only reaction.

"Excuse me?", she whispered. No movement still.

"Hello?...HELLO!" Now the round bellied man woke up slowly and blinked annoyed at the red-head.

"What can I do for you, Miss? In. The. Middle. Of. The. Night?"

"I'm sorry to wake you up, but I really got to see someone", Lily apologized to the painting.

"And of what service can I be for you then?", he hissed.

"Could you just maybe, if it's not too much of effort, go to the boys dorms and tell Cedric Diggory to come and see me right now", its just sounded pathetic. Even to her.

"Pardon me saying, but are you out of your mind?", looking at her up and down, he showed no sign of further moving, not even considering doing what she pleased him to.

"I know it's late, but this is important, really important! It's about the _tournament_. If you tell him to come out he could potentially win the second task of the Triwizard-Tournament for Hogwarts – for Hufflepuff"

He seemed more awake now and more willing. Lily had caught him at his pride.

Slowly, very slowly he lifted himself of the chair and turned to her before he left the frame.

"This is a first, young lady...and a last"

Then there was silence again. Lily stood in the dark alone, waiting. Cedric would probably think she was insane for calling up on him at two o'clock in the morning, but she would make it up to him. Seconds passed like hours as she stepped from one foot to the other, the cold of the night running through her body. Hopefully he wouldn't be too mad at her.

With a 'pop' the painting flew open and there was Cedric, puffy, with half-closed eyes in a marine blue pyjama and a crimson red bathrobe, yawning loudly.

"Lily", came out between two deep breaths, "what are you doing here?"

"Get the egg", was all she managed to order at the sight of him. She could've eaten him up alive right there even with the ugliest of a night dress on.

He tapped back into the common room without another word and was back after a instant.

"You got another idea?", he stated needlessly, "and this couldn't wait until morning?"

It was probably meant to sound disapproving but the smile playing around his lips kind of messed the intentional message up.

"No, it couldn't. I couldn't have slept, I need to see if I'm right, now", Lily knew about then, that he wasn't cross at her.

"Aren't you cold?", jokingly he pointed at her naked feet and didn't fail to notice her idea of a pyjama; a pair of shorts and a large boy's T-Shirt.

"I'm dying, but I'm trying to ignore it", Lily answered him sheepishly and blushed looking down at herself as she finally noticed how literally undressed she was.

The next thing she knew, was that there was fabric laid over her shoulder and that she was inhaling a bigger amount of Cedric's fragrance than before. When she looked up, he was standing opposite her, lacking his robe because he had just put it on her.

"Thank you", was the breathless answer of a breathless Lily Potter.

"Where are we going? You're not really dressed properly for another walk through the woods, are you?" He was so close to her, she found it hard to think.

"We'll do it in here", she said with a dry throat.

"Right here?", he seemed to have taken her sentence the wrong way because he was playing along all seductively as if Lily had meant something totally different when she was talking about 'doing it'.

"In the prefects bathroom on the third floor", Lily was torn between cutting this joke off and going with it.

"The bathroom?", he coughed and went serious again, "what do you want to do with this thing in the bathroom?"

"Water...I thought we could put it in the water", too bad the joke was over so fast, Lily had almost forgotten how cold she was.

The bathroom door was gladly unlocked and welcomed the nightly visitors with moonlit Gothic windows and a huge tub waiting to be filled with water and bubbles.

"You haven't brought swimsuits by any chance?", Cedric asked, still standing in the entry.

"No...I kind of...forgot that. I could...wait outside?", Lily said.

"In the middle of the night with barely nothing on? Over my dead body, Lily. We'll go in underwear, agreed?"

How was she going to say not to that? She nodded curtly and let the robe slide down her shoulders.

"I'll get changed over there", Cedric said and entered the room, walking out of her sight.

Goosebumps from the cold showing, Lily pulled the shirt over her head.

She wasn't uncomfortable with her body, sure she had her problem areas like her thighs and butt but what was she going to do about it now? She took off her shorts walking over to the big bathtub, turned the water on and watched the bubbles coming out of the spigots and felt aqua rising around her ankles.

She was aware of Cedric's presence again and sat down, leaning against the tiled end of the tub, watching him as he approached her and sank down as well. He wore a plaid pair of boxers and his upper body was fit but not too muscular and his strong arms and wide shoulders had Lily lost for words another time.

"The water is perfect", he stated intrigued, "how did you get the temperature right? When I take a bath it's always either too hot or too cold..."

"I didn't. The castle does that. The water in this bathroom always adjusts to the body temperature of those in the tub. It says that in _Hogwarts – A History_", Lily wouldn't have thought that she was ever going to apply her knowledge about Hogwarts that she gained from reading her aunty 'Moines favourite book and now she was proud of her insight to some of the castles mysteries.

When the water reached their chests, Lily relaxed her legs and muscles, surprised at how easy it was sitting next to Cedric with practically no clothes on. She would've imagined it to be strange, but it was just natural, like everything about their connection.

Lily had been crushing on a couple of boys before but she hadn't been able to even really talk to them because she couldn't think of anything to say. There was always this awkward silence that she hated more than anything else and she would feel stupid and out of place. But it was never like that with Cedric, sometimes he would simply take her breath away, but once a conversation had started there was no silence after it whatsoever. That was really something.

Now, though, they both didn't talk because they were enjoying the hot, comfortable water, Lily more likely because she felt that blood came back to her body again.

"Wasn't there something else we wanted to do?", Cedric said unwound and easy, "I forgot"

Lily reached behind him for the egg he had carelessly left there and held it in front of his face.

He didn't react.

"Cedric?", that was when he opened his eyes again.

"Oh...yeah...the egg", he was obviously kidding and it made her chuckle, not because it was tremendously funny but because, once again, their way of being around each other was flowing like the water they sat in.

Cedric took the egg out of her little hands, drowned it and loosed the breech. The noise that percolated from underneath the water didn't sound like head-ache-causing-shrieks any more.

"Draft?", Lily asked turning her head to him.

"Draft", he replied and then was already down there.

"Come seek us where our voices sound, we can not sing above the ground, an hour long you have to look to recover what we took", sung a wonderful clear voice through the muffled sounds that reached Lily's ears under water as if it was sung right inside of her own head.

She wasn't surprised about the riddle because she had known the answer before but when she got up again, Cedric was tensely concentrated, soaking wet and adorable.

"Can you make something out of it?", she asked him, rubbing her eyes.

"They can't be heard above the ground, they can only be heard in the water...which makes them..."

"Merpeople", they said in unison.

"The Great Lake", Cedric grinned triumphant at the revelation.

"And that 'hour long' is a time limit", Lily added happily.

"Okay...so now we got to figure out how I can stay under water for an hour", Cedric said and a tiny bit of his enthusiasm left for good.

"Yeah, but we've got plenty of time to figure that out, now", Lily encouraged him.

"You're right...you're great, Lily! Thank you, thank you, thank you!", he was beaming, she didn't believe that she had seen anyone quiet as radiant as he was now, ever before.

In a rush of joy as it seemed he took her into his embrace so sudden, that Lily couldn't move any more, he squeezed her and held on very tight. She could feel his naked chest pressed onto hers and tasted paradise. He felt so good, so warm and she fitted perfectly into his arms.

"Thank you", he mumbled again into her wet hair.

Carefully he released her off his grasp with his face still inches away from hers. He smiled and his eyes went down her face, lasting an eighth of a second too long on her lips.

Her heart started to race. He was so close, he was _too_ close. Her eyes were locked with his as his face got closer. She was sure that she was going to pass out. He was going to kiss her. She couldn't think any more, she just closed her eyes and opened her lips slightly and waited for heaven to wash over her. She could feel his breath, she heard him parting his lips and tenderly –

"Hoity-toity", said a squeaky girls voice and the two jumped apart.

The see-through shape of Mourning Myrtle floated above their heads, looking deeply satisfied.

"You've got yourself a brand new girlfriend as it seems, Cedric", she sing-sang evilly.

Cedric's eyes got huge: "No, no, don't...please, don't tell anybody what you saw"

Lily's heart didn't beat for quite a while. That had hurt.

"Why wouldn't I?", Myrtle teased.

"I'll do anything", Cedric said sincerely.

"Anything?", she asked balefully.

"Anything"

"Even going out with a pitiful lonesome ghost?", oh, of course...she wanted a piece of him, too.

"Even that. If you promise me something", he insisted. She gestured him to tell her his conditions.

"You will tell no-one what has happened here tonight. You will say, that I've been here alone and that I have figured out the riddle by myself. You will never mention that there was someone here with me. You do that and we have a deal?"

"Deal", she said as if he had just sold his soul to her. Happily singing, she slipped into a toilet on the other side of the room.

Lily stood up rapidly, grabbed her clothes from the ground and ran for it.

How could he be so heartless. First almost kiss her and then deny her. Again. How could he claim that he had solved the riddle alone? How had she been so wrong in her judgement about him? Did his good looks and charms tricked her false-judging head eventually? She swallowed down hot tears and fastened her steps, when she heard him calling her from behind.

"Lily", he yelled, "Lily, wait, for crying out loud"

She didn't listen. But he was a quick runner and sooner than she would have expected him to, he grabbed her arm forcefully and turned her around to face him.

"I'm sorry", he whispered, "I didn't mean to hurt you"

"I have no words", she answered toneless and resigned, feeling smashed.

"I told you I don't want any rumours or unnecessary attention drawn to you" _So do I!_

"This is not about gaining attention and you know it", she said louder, "you can't just go and kiss me and then..."

"I did not kiss you", he said calm and it was like watching him dance Polka on her heart.

"You were about to", she forced out her mouth.

"And I'm sorry about that", honest silk. Sincere as always, that it left no doubt in Lily, that he was telling the truth.

"I wasn't thinking and I didn't want to...hurt you...look, it's difficult Lily. See, you...fascinate me. I really like being with you, spending time with you. But there is Cho and the tournament and my N.E.W.T.s and so many other things going on. I don't know whether I can make any proper decision right now. I really like you. I do, you got to believe me and I do need your help but I..._this_...has to wait. You know. As I said, I can't think straight. I know it's a lot to ask of you but please, stick it out with me for a little while...I...I can't promise you anything. But I like you and I like how you make me feel. I'm sorry"

When he ended his speech, Lily stood there, half naked, freezing with water dripping from her body and stared at her feet, she couldn't bare looking at him.

It happened so fast. Before she even known it, her own little crush on him, what she thought of to be just inside her own head, had made it's way into daylight – or moonlight more likely.

And Cedric didn't just know; he kind of felt the same way even. But he couldn't _promise anything_...

What was that supposed to mean, anyway? Now, Lily wished that she hadn't been so inexperienced with boys and relationships and the whole game.

How had this happened? And what was going to happen now? Would he consider being with her? How was she supposed to figure him out?

"Won't you look at me any more?", he asked softly and ended her trail of thoughts.

She shook her head and shivered. It was so cold and she was standing there in her soaked underwear, pressing her pyjama tightly to her stomach.

Gently, Cedric reached for her face and with the side of his forefinger he lifted her chin up, forcing her to look at him. His ocean eyes pulled her in, yet again.

"Can you ever forgive me?"

"I can think about it", Lily gave in. How she hated never being able to say 'no'.

"Will you please let me take you to your wing? You look like you're going to pass out any second...

I'm worried for you", he really was, Lily could tell and lifted her arms in silent agreement.

Cedric took the robe he had taken with him and wrapped it around Lily's shivering body and lifted her off her feet as if she was as light as a feather and carried her all the way to the Gryffindor portrait.

Lily couldn't recall more of their way there or how Cedric managed to get inside the Gryffindor common room, she was vastly exhausted.

But her memory got sharp again, when he put her to bed, finicky not to wake anybody up. He tucked her in tightly and sat down next to her.

"I'm so sorry", he aspirated, "You will catch a cold now and it's all my fault"

Lily grunted quietly and then a wild idea took control of her.

An idea she couldn't refrain; she sat up straight almost at the speed of light and not thinking, not knowing how he would react to it, she pressed her lips on his.

His lips were warm and soft and he didn't break the kiss, he swiftly kissed back and it was over in a second but it made Lily feel like she was soaring ten feet above her bed.

"Paying me back with confusion?", Cedric asked and the hint of a smile passed his features.

"I've got to give you some good arguments to base your decisions on, don't I?", Lily mumbled sleepy and sank back down on her pillow.

"You do. Good night, Lily. And I'm sorry.", his voice was like honey dripping onto her body.

She didn't know if she was already dreaming when she felt slight pressure of wet lips on her forehead but she certainly was afterwards.


	6. The Yule Ball

I know that the dancing-lesson-scene is not in the book, but seeing as this story is more based on the movie anyway (you know, like...Cedric is blond like Robert Pattinson and not dark-haired as he's described in the books), you'll just have to live with it. (But I think you can actually handle it, can't you?)

…**...**

**Chapter Six**

**The Yule Ball**

"Hatchoo!", Lily snivelled at the sight of the little mountain made of used handkerchiefs that had risen on her bed. Her face was all puffy, her eyes were swollen and each time she swallowed, it felt like there was a roaring chainsaw learning how to fly inside her throat. She felt miserable.

It had been a week since Cedric had taken her back to this very bed – and she had kissed him in it – and while she originally had assumed to have come away with a little bit of coughing and sneezing from her little adventure around the castle at night dressed in wet underwear, she was all knocked out since Wednesday when her high temperature couldn't be ignored any more.

It was as Cedric had predicted; she had caught a big fat cold.

Suffering from that and her twice-the-size heart, Lily sat around in her bedroom all day, thinking about what the golden haired boy had said to her.

"..._you fascinate me_...", that had been some of his words. But how? How would she possibly be fascinating anybody? Looking into the bathroom mirror when washing her face, she thought that she could might have been the ugliest girl in the world. Or maybe not the ugliest of all but in no way to be compared to him. He was flawless while her cheek bones were to wide, her eyes too deep in the socket, her lips too thin and her hair too thick.

And still, no matter how senseless it was to hope, Lily wished so bad for him to choose her over Cho; over any other girl. Because no matter what, she would be on his sleeve, protecting him, she would give up anything to do so and she felt with bitter jealousy that this was a little bit more love-worthy than what Cho had to offer.

"Poor thing?", a girl's voice resounded from the tiled walls that Lily recognised to be Tara's.

"Yep?", she answered walking into the dorm, leaving her reflection and self-pity behind.

"We've got some news", Tara was beaming, an expression the young Potter could hardly remember to have ever seen the callous girls face. Janice stood behind her and smiled equally as bright.

"Tell me already", Lily said impatiently.

"There will be a ball!", the tanned girl jumped up and down, clapping her hands together frantically.

"A ball?", _as in __**Pride and Prejudice**__-ball?_

"Yes, a real ball, with waltz-dancing and long dresses and tuxedos...we're going all the way", Tara said ironically, rolling her eyes but one could easily guess that she was exited about – deep down under her sarcastic mask of a face.

"McGonagal wants us to come practice dancing on Tuesday and you really have to be well by then!", Janice said, taking care not to get too close to again coughing Lily.

"I'll do my very best", the girl barked, crawling into her bed. She was not really sure what to make of a ball, she had never been much of a dancer but when McGonagal wanted to teach them, she would learn it of course. Unless she wouldn't be coughing her guts out before Tuesday and not be surviving the week-end, she thought sneezing.

When Tuesday came around, Lily gave in to Janice's pleads and went to class for the first time since she had agreed to stay in bed (with a temperature of almost 104 degrees) so that she could attend the dancing lesson in the afternoon.

At lunch, Lily kept looking for Cedric nervously and when he finally arrived, there was pretty Cho right next to him and the Potter girl felt a sting inside her chest, when he turned to smile 'Hello' to her.

Was she the only one that considered his behaviour a little weird? He was still dating Cho obviously and then he had kissed Lily back that night and...it was just weird! But then again, no one else knew that he had kissed her back, only very few people knew that they even met occasionally.

She smiled back at him weakly and then turned to her cereals that didn't appeal to her half as much as the sight of Cedric. Starring at her cornflakes, she missed Cedric's twisted expression of pain and guilt.

"You're okay?", Janice asked perceptively.

"I'm all right", she didn't sound too convincing, "My throat still hurts"

"Oh my...Lilz...you got it bad right there", Lily's friend patted her back softly.

"I do", Janice probably had no idea how right she was, seeing that she was referring to her cold more than her heartache but either way, Lily had really gotten it bad.

"The Yule-Ball is first and foremost a dance", spoke Professor McGonaghal in front of a populated classroom. Almost all Gryffindors were gathered, the boys on one side of the room, embarrassed by the whole scenario, the girls on the other, eager to get on their feet dancing.

Lily stood in the shadows, letting her eyes glide over the row of the boys. Harry sat next to Uncle Ron and whispered to him right before McGonagal ordered the red-head to come up to him.

Suppressed laughter filled up the room, when McGonaghal ordered the slim Weasley-boy to put his hands on her waist and started to dance with him, constantly counting the beats.

"One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three..."

Lily pressed her hand onto her mouth to silence her giggling; Ron had the exact same look on his face that he had, when he had found out about Rose's first boyfriend; Lavender Brown's son John.

When it was her turn to hit the 'dance floor', she was grabbed on her hip by some boy from Year seven that she had never seen before but who seemed to be a really good dancer and spun her around like she was weightless. Whereas Lily kept staring at her feet, wondering if her partner wondered with what clutz he was dancing there.

The majority of other girls seemed to be equally as clumsy, how Lily could tell from their expressions she could see in the corner of her eye. Calmed down a bit, she gave in to her destiny and surprisingly picked up some steps, feeling a little ungraceful though, pulling up her nose all the time.

After an hour that seemed to have passed in no time, little Miss Potter, on the way back to the common room, was surrounded by her room mates who were jabbering wildly.

"Oh, come on, I mean, seriously, why would you go to he ball with Alvin? Who wants to date a chipmunk?", laughed Tara despite the mourning look on Janice's face.

"Well, I have to say yes, don't I? I mean, it's not looking like anyone else is going to ask me and I couldn't stand going there alone"

"Oh, you got a point there! Going alone would be worse than anything, actually. How sad is that?", Tara asked and chuckled.

"Who will be your date, Lily?"

"Hmm...I don't know really. No one's asked me yet", replied Lily uneasy.

"Oh", Janice looked down at her pitifully, "What about Cedric? He didn't ask you?"

Again, the Italian-look-a-like hit the pin on the head; she pointed out exactly what made Lily tick. Because no, Cedric hadn't asked her. Blimey, he hadn't even talked to her really since that kiss. She felt horrible and already saw everything lost, how would Cedric even consider her as a ball date? She was stupid to even hope he would think about asking her out, even if he liked her enough, him dating her would cause a fuss. It would be madness and it was totally out of the question. Even if he did ask her due to a temporary lack of sanity, she – given she was in her right mind – would have to deny the offer. She couldn't risk being reported as Cedric Diggory's new school fling.

The three sixth graders had become oddly silent when they walked around a corridor corner and bumped into the person the least likely to bump into.

"Cedric!", Lily yelled up suddenly and stared at his perfection face. Although she was thinking about him all the time and was always trying to picture his face opposite hers, seeing it for real was no match. It made her blood freeze and caused a dull grin onto her very own features.

"Lily", he said smiling crookedly and gestured her to have a word with him alone.

With no idea what he had in mind with her, she followed him and listened closely, when he buckled down to whisper in her ear that it made her shiver from head to toe.

"I need to talk to you, it's important. Will you meet me on 4 pm in the Library?"

Lily just nodded and he left her standing still, stunned as always from his incredible overwhelming presence. What was he going to tell her? Would he, maybe do ask her out to the ball? Oh yeah, right...of course he would...not. And then another idea bloomed in her mind; he was going to tell her off. He had made his decision. Pro Cho. Con Lily. Poor Lily. Her heart stopped beating for an unpleasant while before her eyes filled with silent tears. It seemed so obvious, so typical, that she didn't for one second reconsidered the other option; the one where she got the prince.

Rain kept hitting the windows of the Gryffindor common room and Lily oddly enjoyed it beyond reason for it absolutely greeted her mood. So she would go to see Cedric like he asked her to. But when she was there, what would she do? What should she say? Suddenly she felt incredibly stupid for kissing him and felt like betting on Cedric's rejection to come very soon.

Seriously, why the hell would he decide to be with her? So she was the only person alive that could save him from certain death but did he know that? No, he didn't. From where he was at, she was only a sixth grader with a weird fascination for him that somehow felt like kissing him in the middle of the night after having a bath together, right?

The fear spread inside her chest, when she took on the walk to the library. She just might have blown it already. How could she manage to save him, when he would tell her to piss off and go find another pretty boy to crush on? And how was she going to survive him dumping her? The worst thing was that she had no one else to blame. If she had only held herself back from that rush of feelings she desired more than anything else. If she just didn't feel this way for him. It would all be so much easier, if they were just friends and innocently just enjoying each others company.

"Hey...er...before you start...I'm sorry for...ah-", Lily whispered to herself, practising what to say to him, trying to brace herself.

She arrived at their meeting spot a couple minutes earlier on full purpose. She wanted to see Cedric walking towards her so she could read his face and know which version of her "Please let me save you, still"-plea to present to him if he was going to tell her off.

Tipping her feet anxiously on the floor, disregarding the annoyed snorts from a girl sitting down the table, the red-head stopped breathing for an instant when her very own Prince Charming entered the room, looking for her. He hadn't spotted her yet, which gave Lily enough time to study his features.

He seemed calm but a slight twitch of his left eye gave his inner tension away, at least to people who knew his face so well as Lily did. Now, was he nervous to 'break up' with her or was he nervous because of something else, she wondered. In the first place, she thought, he hadn't really got a reason to be tense. He wasn't the one expecting a rebuff here, was he?

Just a short glimpse and then he saw her, his face lit up and Lily's heart made yet another unpleasant stop, when he sat down opposite her.

"Hi", his eyes focussed her for a second, then his hands that lay on the table and then her eyes again. Now he looked like an orphaned shy puppy.

"What's the matter, Cedric?", mysteriously all the phrases that she had put together to say to him in this very moment where erased off her brain.

"I just wanted to see you", he said and tried a smile, but before Lily was taken away by it again, something inside her caught fire and suddenly _she_ was tensed but in no nervous way.

"How come", she almost screamed and then started to whisper huskily and angry through gritted teeth after the other girl down the table 'shh'-shed her, "you think you can just come and meet up with me when someone could see us...someone like Cho for instance..."

She had no idea why she was so cross and she also knew that she had nothing to be mad about, because he wasn't her boyfriend and because he hadn't promised her anything. But still, he did have some sort of responsibility after all he had said to her. But he was so good at this; driving her totally mad with her stupid crush for one second and then acting totally stupid the other second, making her want to strangle his perfectly shaped neck.

Cedric for his part, didn't seem the least bit surprised, just a little sad.

"Lily", he sounded eager to dim her fury, "I know that I must confuse you and you have all reason to be mad at me. I know I'm not treating you how you deserve to be treated right now and believe me, I hate it, when I'm hurting you."

And then Lily's brain quit it's duty for a few moments; he let his one arm glide from the table top and under the table, reached for her knee. His fingertips touched her bare skin between her long socks and her skirt and she had goosebumps all over her body momentarily.

She must have given him a funny look, because he smirked and removed his hand quickly, mouthing something Lily thought to have misunderstood.

"I want to be with you"

"What?", she mouthed back in shock and couldn't imagine that he had really just said what she thought to have understood. What was happening right now?

With a movement, so fast that Lily almost tripped over her own feet, he grabbed her and pulled her after him. They walked merely twenty feet until Cedric pushed her left into a deserted corridor of bookshelves and all the way through to a little door, which he opened and manoeuvred her inside.

She didn't know what to think, again so mad and in a hint of a second happy ecstatic. He was driving her nuts.

They stood in a tiny little broom closet and looked at each other. Lily felt like saying something but she had forgotten how speaking worked and so she just let herself sink deeper into his eyes.

"I want to be with you, Lily Collins", he said and sounded sincere and certain.

"Why?", again she could hardly believe her ears and felt a flash of pain when he called her by her fake last name that reminded her off the senselessness of their whole relationship that she wished so dearly to be one.

Still, was he serious or was this just another faint idea that he would cast off by tomorrow?

"You...ah...it's kinda hard to put in words really...and it'll sound cheesy", he smiled embarrassed and looked ...he looked as though he was in love, Lily thought in amazement and was almost sure to be dreaming.

"I want to hear it anyway, "Lily whispered, "I...I find it so hard to...understand you. I really try to read you but I can't. You do these things and they make me so angry and then you apologize. You're like the weather and it's not too easy to believe a deceleration of whatever this is from someone so ... unpredictable"

He stared at her for a moment, contemplating what she said, what she asked of him.

"I see. I can be horrible, I know that. So I will be honest", he said and took a deep breath, "But don't say I didn't warn you ...You touched me. From the first time on that you had noticed me down in the Great Hall, how you looked at me, that was hilarious because you looked like I felt, seeing you for the first time. Just baffled. You were amazing, your eyes...they were...on fire. And then when you came to me after the first task. I don't know if you knew, but I had seen you in the arena and the days before, the first weeks of the school term. I've seen you and it seemed like you had never seen anything or anyone. That fascinated me. You were so...untouchable, totally out of reach and mysterious because no one knew you and you talked to no one and then you looked at _me_ and you wanted to help _me_. I couldn't believe it, when you came to see me after the first task. I was so nervous to talk to you, that I acted like a complete dork. Believe me, I have never heard myself speak the way I talked to you that day, like a complete git, I felt like a stranger to myself. And there you were...wanting to spend your time with me nevertheless. You made me feel...special"

"Huh?", as far as Lily was concerned, she was the one feeling super-special right now.

"Lily, don't you see? You...you talked to me like no girl ever did, you really did not expect anything from me, you were just there, you've just been so helpful and...I thought you really knew where I was coming from. Remember when I felt so horrible in the Forbidden Forest? You built me right up again, with no effort. And that night in the castle, I was being an idiot, I mean, I knew that there was no way that I would be going on with Cho when I had the option of being with you. Not because she's not a great girl. It's only...with us, it feels like...something more. Something bigger. Do you understand? I'm sorry for letting you wait, I just had to see things clearly and figure out a way to be with you. Because that's really what I want"

Now he suddenly looked vulnerable and a thousand times shyer, almost _scared_. Like he was afraid _she _could be rejecting him, Lily realised in true wonder. He obviously had no idea how much Lily wanted...how she irrationally _needed_ him in her life. Something in his features swept away her doubting his motives or his honesty. Just then it finally hit; he wanted to be with her.

Now, the world could end. That was more of luck than she had ever expected. If she would have allowed herself to see reason, to know the stupidity of their love, she would have totally ruined the moment.

That's why Lily ignored the dim shadow of reality like it was a third person in the little room, that would go away if she just showed him the cold shoulder.

After a while of just staring at him, overwhelmed – her face not yet accustomed to the knowledge of her heart; that he was serious – still looking disbelieving, he cleared his throat and winced a little: "Are you torturing me on purpose or will you ever say something?"

"About what?", he'd lost her.

"About us being together"

_Oh_, she thought.

"Of course...I'm sorry. I thought it wouldn't need confirmation.", she lowered her head ashamed of the truth to her words. Didn't he see that she'd fallen forty stories deep down in love with him?

"But", she said with a bit of the real world making her way to her awareness, "we have to keep it down. People will go crazy about you having a new girlfriend"

"Well that's the main thing...and I think I will need to talk to Cho first. But not before the Yule-Ball. I've asked her to be my date months ago and that would just be mean, telling her off now. I need to...let her down easy. I feel really bad for doing this to her but...You know, I thought, I shouldn't be ruining her Christmas and I don't want her to be all angry at me and start gossiping", he spoke very carefully as if he feared Lily would snap in jealousy over his caution with Cho's feelings.

But it wasn't like that. She was stealing someone's boyfriend although she had never wanted to be one of _those_ girls and having to trust on Cho's discretion wasn't the most pleasant thing. She didn't want Cho to hurt, for what she knew her from later in time, she was a friendly, kind-hearted woman who didn't deserve any kind of suffering.

"Let's hope she doesn't spill", Lily said more to herself, "But then, if she's your date, I don't have one for the ball" She tried to smile but she knew her joke was not too funny.

Cedric was right, he couldn't do that to her. Deep inside, Lily though had held on to the ridiculous image she had painted in her head. The one with her and Ced all dressed up and happily dancing the waltz she struggled to learn. She was willing to let Cho stand in her place. To let her be happy on Christmas, that was the least Lily could do. She tried to ease her own guilt with that concession to Cho but that was all she was going to do. She would not even consider not being with Cedric for Cho's sake.

Also, if Cho stayed with Cedric, Lily's friend Linh might never exist and that seemed like a scoring point and yet another justification for letting Cedric ditch his girlfriend.

"No", Cedric smiled weakly after a while, stopping her internal monologue, "I will not be your date...but I'd like you a lot to save me a dance"

"I will", she promised dutifully, painting that dance inside her head. It looked nice to her and she smiled as he took her into his embrace. His hot chest, being a perfect shaped place to lay down her head onto, felt like heaven to her and she took a deep breath, not trusting her legs.

She felt him tentatively stroking up and down her back and she squeezed him tighter in response. And then they were somehow in a competition, who could pull the other one closer, gripping at each other, his hands finding their way into her messy hair and as they were holding each other impossibly tight, both their breathing turned ragged.

Finally, he reached out to get a grip on her face and, cupping it, pulled her up to his and when they kissed, Lily felt like something exploded inside of her. She had never been kissed like that, it wasn't just a trying-out, let's-see-what-happens-kiss, this was a real; a grown-up-kiss, an essential way of confirming their feelings for each other and it also wasn't as tame as their first had been, now, both of them where just trying to get all out of the deep embrace they could.

It got to a point where Lily felt a lot like moaning, a peculiar feeling she hadn't experienced before.

"Okay, okay, Lily", Cedric breathed out, breaking the kiss after what could have easily been days, slight embarrassment mingled in his voice as he let go of her, "Lily, stop"

She stopped dead in her movement took two steps back from him, afraid to have done something wrong and then her eyes slipped to the bulge in his pants.

"Did...I...do _that_?", she asked barely audible under her own fastened breath.

The bronze-haired laughed awkwardly but he answered honestly: "You did that now and you've done it before, I was very thankful for the bubbles in the tub the other day"

"Blimey" She hadn't known she could to THAT to a boy, "um, sorry"

"Nothing to be sorry for", he said, "just...I don't think we should be getting tempted to loose it in here"

"Loose what?", Lily asked incredulous.

"Nevermind", Cedric said and pulled her in, pecking her forehead lightly, "we better leave now"

Back in the common room Lily was still trying to make the weird feeling beneath her navel to go away. It stressed her out even more than her racing heart that wouldn't slow down since Cedric had led her back to the moving staircase and said 'goodbye' through a firm kiss on her hair, when no one could see them.

So he really liked her, he liked her enough to get all _exited_ about her and he would leave Cho to be with her.

As miraculous as it seemed, Lily believed it now, having seen his face, his eyes telling her everything she had never thought to be true. And she was happy, she was filled up with luck but there remained a shadow; a cloud above her triumph over Cho and all the other girls.

They had no future, she know that with absolute certainty. They would have some few sunlit days out by the lake and maybe kiss again some time or an other but then Lily would soon have to fully focus on keeping him from entering the deadly maze and hopefully succeed and then she would have to go and leave him in this time that wasn't hers.

She'd tried to cast that off her mind when he was around, when she was claiming her happiness about his confession but now, that she was no longer with him, she couldn't run from reality any more. She was so selfish. She was so involved with her feelings for him, that she walked over his heart like a blinded. She didn't care if she hurt him by going away. It was disgusting.

But would she, _could_ she be fair, despite that? Could she be turning him down to spare him pain and herself the need to explain why she had to leave him some day not so far away? Was she strong enough to keep away from him?

No. Of course she wasn't. She couldn't imagine _not_ being with him. Not right now, not ever again, if she was honest to herself and she hated every bit of her weak self for it.

Absent mindedly Lily stared out of the window and looked after a crow that swung up from one of the gargoyles that adorned the Gryffindor tower tile roof.

"Is this seat free, young lady?", a boys voice said.

Lily turned around to answer and was in a slight state of shock: "Sure"

Fred Weasley sat down beside her and smiled a smile that was exactly like Lily's Fred's, only that his skin was chocolate-coloured, still, the freckles on their cheeks where the same.

"I have a question", he stated.

"Well go ahead", she said and nervously looked around to make sure her other relatives weren't observing them. She was so relieved it wasn't George she was talking to.

"I have a bet going on, it says that if I can get you to go to the ball with me, I win a fifty grand...we could split. Doesn't that sound like a good deal?"

"Um", Lily didn't know what to say. She couldn't go to the ball with Fred, could she? That was too weird. And too dangerous. She couldn't say yes. But he looked at her so pleadingly. Could she deny him? If she was his last shot, maybe he wouldn't get another date...if she wasn't allowed to warn him, that he would die facing the Deatheaters two years from now, she couldn't make him go to the Yule Ball without a date. As silly as it seemed and as much as it pained her...being his date would make her feel better for not saving him like she would save Cedric.

"One condition", she whispered.

"Okay", he raised one eyebrow but seemed cooperative.

"We won't sit on one table with the rest of your friends", she said strict.

"Why?", he laughed but looked a bit offended.

"I don't want any jokes to go wrong, I don't want any hair on fire, I don't want my dress soaked, I don't want one eye-lash out of place due to some joke, to make a long speech short; I don't want any Weasley-action going on", _God, I'm so good!_

Lily felt really smart for coming up with an answer that actually made sense.

"I see your point", Fred grinned, "so we meet here at six o'clock and I'll take you to the Great Hall were we will sit the furthest away from the rest of the Weasleys and I'll pay you 25 pounds for your assistance"

"Now that sounds like a good deal", she smiled and her eyes followed the red head after he said goodbye to her and left. What was she doing? She had to be more than careful to not let some information slip and not to get close to uncle George, Ron, Hermione or her parents.

The girl starring back at Lily from the mirror seemed to have nothing in common with the Lily Luna Potter she was used to see in it ever before. She wore a bronze dress with golden ornaments she had burrowed from Tara that made her light skin shimmer, her hair was loosely held back with a gold barrette and a few curls were falling into her face.

She was almost surprised that she could look like that – nearly glamorous – but after all she had spent a few hours in the bathroom to get ready for the Yule Ball.

The girls dorm was busy with the last preparations, hair was curled up, dresses were fixed, make-up was finished and they were noisily talking gossip.

"Oh my gosh...Lily! You look amazing", Janice complimented her, when she turned around to them.

"Ah...well...thanks...I'm trying", even the thickest make-up couldn't have hidden her blushing cheeks.

"I bet Cedric is going to be so angry that he hasn't asked you out", Janice grinned.

"I hope so", Lily said though actually being happy about the way it had turned out with Ced.

They were meeting in secret, talking numerous hours down by the lake, cuddled together because of the cold. She was widely ignoring the nagging voice in her head that was demanding of her to be fair to him.

And it was difficult for her to answer the questions he was constantly posing, about her family, her childhood, her experiences in South Africa. Sometimes she would tell him a true story and change some names and details but sometimes she had to grab a full portion out of her lie-box and tell him complete nonsense. That hurt her, but she also knew that she had no other choice, so she focused the conversations on him and his past and thoughts. Surprisingly he remained as open and willing to answer every possible question she could come up with, what let Lily to a stage where she knew probably more about the charming sixth grader than any of his friends.

She knew that he was afraid of over-crowded rooms (just like she was), that he liked rock music of mainly muggle bands (just like she did), that he would choose a night of reading a book over playing a game of Quiditch (again, like she would), although he really liked the game, how he broke his leg and his nose (twice) as a child, what issues he had with his fathers expectations of him, that he wanted to have four kids and be working in the muggle world, when he grew up (almost like she wanted it) and how he felt about dying.

That was clearly a tough topic for Lily but it made her even more desperate to save him. She still remembered his exact words:

"I want to live. I don't understand people that kill themselves, that see life as torture and not as a present. I love living and breathing and winning and failing. I love it all. I love meeting people like you and if I was dead...how um...you know, it seems so theoretical, but don't you think everyone has a purpose? A reason to live? Like, if my reason to live was being with you. Just imagine I'd died before I had the chance to meet you..."

"So you're saying meeting me was destiny", she asked him incredulous, not able to imagine how he could really _mean_ that. It was clear to her that meeting him had to be sort of a fate-thing, her being there was proof enough of that, but how was he coming to that thought?

"Why not?", he said quietly and Lily could almost hear him blush. She'd noticed that he sort of couldn't help being true with her – even if he was ashamed of it because it revealed the true extend of his feelings. She felt a wave of gladness wash over her every single time something like this happened.

Still, she knew he hated being so vulnerable, so she changed the subject.

"What would you fight to death for?", she asked wanting to know if he'd be one of the "guerilla fighters" against Voldemort, if he lived through this year, "Would you fight Voldemort?"

He flinched at the name of the Dark Lord; so he _was_ afraid of him, but shuddered it off very quickly.

"I would have, if I had been old enough to, when he was at large"

"What if he comes back?", Lily asked breathlessly, weighing every word to decide if it was dangerous to bring the topic on, anyhow, she needed to know.

Cedric seemed to think it was funny: "He's not coming back. He's destroyed"

"You don't know that for sure", Lily insisted and tried to sound more child-like and spiteful than mature, honestly afraid and knowing. She stared at him and nailed him there, trying to make him see the urgency of her question and he understood.

"Yes, I would. If he came back, I would fight him. I would protect you" A short moment where Lily lost track of her thoughts. _He would protect me...funny, sad, wonderful. He would protect me..._

"But if he would kill you?", fear was swinging along, when she spoke again.

"Then I would have died for someone I love", Cedric answered with deep confidence.

She still heard this echoing inside her head, when her eyes followed Cedric, accompanied by Cho, entering the fantastic-midwinterly decorated Great Hall, leading her to the dance floor for the first dance. He spun her around as if he had always been a dancer, lifting her from her feet so that she looked absolutely graceful; Lily heard Fred gasp behind her.

"She's so pretty", he said.

"Yeah...she is", Lily answered in a high pitching tone in a second of jealousy that was soon gone, with his echoing words.

Fred was an acceptable dancer and a pleasant date, he held word and placed them on a table from which they couldn't even see his (and her) relatives. He made jokes and they had a nice conversation but it was clear, that he had nothing else in mind.

"You remind me so much of my little sister Ginny...she is just like you. Like a spitten image. You even have her eyes...she will probably look like you in a couple of years", he laughed but Lily turned her face away from him so quickly, ridiculously hoping that he would forget, that she had in fact the same eyes as Ginny.

"Yeah", she spoke to the vase of ice-flowers on the table, "I'm going to get us something to drink"

"Okay", when Fred said that she was already trying to stop herself from running to the buffet.

With two full glasses of butter beer she made her way back to Fred who greedily took them away from her.

"Cedric was asking for you just now, he says he's waiting outside...by the bridge.", Fred said between two large slurps.

"Oh", Lily couldn't manage not to grin and looked painful in her attempt to seem unaffected.

Fred who surely noticed her lightened face pulled her dress and joked: "But you're behaving out there...it's cold. Well...or maybe...if Cedric has a good technique..."

"Oh, shut up", where Lily's last words before she made her way outside.

It wasn't just cold. It was freezing. Lily even considered going back to get her coat but then seeing Cedric within he next seconds rather than the next minutes seemed way more appealing.

Her heartbeat speeded and she felt less cold the moment she saw him standing in the middle of the wooden bridge in his black tuxedo.

He looked like he was waiting for his future wife to walk down the aisle and came a couple of steps towards her, when he heard her step onto the wooden ground.

"Come closer, please", he said and she of course did what she was pleased to do.

He seemed to be glowing from inside but Lily could see the thin lines on his forehead now, a sign of tension.

"Lily...you look wonderful", he said softly, stroking her cheek, "But you're naked...you were just over your cold, now it's got you back, I bet", he removed a couple of curls out of her face and tucked them behind her ear before putting his jacket over her shoulders, "I don't have much time, Cho is already unhappy with me for not paying her any attention tonight...but I want my promised dance now. Any other way I won't get through the night. It's painful to imagine that you could've been my date...in this dress"

Lily was blushing again and was lost of words. He was simply perfection.

"Dance with me"; Cedric said and reached for her hand.

"No music", she mouthed at him without making a sound and shaking from the cold.

The next thing that filled the air was soft humming and Cedric took her into his embrace.

"And now where grown up orphans", he started singing and Lily yelped with joy and surprise.

_He listened to the song!_

She had told him about it, that it was her favourite song ever and he actually listened to it. It the second verse of the song "Name" by the GooGooDolls, one of Lily's all time favourite bands. She always tried to get Corey to listen to their songs, but he thought they were too old and outworn. Cedric was still singing and tapping from one foot to the other, slowly turning Lily around to the beat.

"That never knew their names,

We don't belong to no one

That's a shame,

But you could hide beside me

Maybe for a while

And I will tell no one your name"

He was the only real thing. Her chest was feeling like it was about to explode with all the affection it held for him that very moment. She felt his body close to hers, his breath condensing on her neck, making it warm and she heard his dark voice next to her ears and shivered but definitely not from the cold.

Then, skipping from the second to the last verse, he pulled away from her and looked at her, their eyes locked:

"I think about you all the time", he sang airily.

She stared back at him and took in all of his light, all of his passion. He was so beautiful as he sang to her. To her alone.

And like a rerun of her recurring day-dream, he bent down to her, his face even closer to her than before and he placed a soft kiss on her rippled lips. Suddenly, Lily was warm as if she was cosily cuddled up in front of the fire place in her grandparents house.

She opened her mouth in a sheer lack of oxygen because she had once again forgotten to breath, but Cedric used the opportunity to let his tongue glide into her willing mouth and let it swirl around hers a little.

An exploding sensation went all through her body again, starting out from the tip of her tongue.

She knew that this was it. She had never believed those sayings, that you would know if you've found the _one_, that you could tell from his kiss.

She didn't know how she did, but she knew with the certainty of death that he was her destiny. He was chosen for her. She was made for him. And she didn't know how and when and against all signs and circumstances that there was a way they could be together. Forever. She would find a way. She would never be without him. She just knew.

…...

Aww...ain't that sweet...I'm awfully sorry for all the fluff...but you know me, I had to have it.

This right here links to the song of the GooGooDolls (I'm totally replaying it over and over and over and over): /watch?v=ip1Tz-35WB4

Listen to it while you read the scenes with Lily and Cedric...

Please review the chapter if your through with it. I'm really caught up with school right now and I don't want to write on "Lily's Quest" if no one cares about it, if no one's reading it. Although I'd really like to continue it...I won't if no one's interested in reading it.


	7. Into The Blue

**Author's Note: **I edited every last chapter, so if you're a reader from the start, you might want to check it out, for any new readers, welcome aboard, just note that between this seventh chapter and the last lie years, so my style and ability to write has changed, hopefully for the better since then but I'll leave that up to you...

I can't promise you when I'll post the new chapter but I had this written and I thought, why not put it out here for the patient waiting :) Thanks for coping with my lateness!

Chapter Seven

Into The Blue

The first glimpses of spring reached Hogwarts Castle unexpected, in late February. It had been awful, London-ish, rainy weather and suddenly the clouds parted and the sun shone warm on the castle grounds, the lake and the forbidden forest.

Lily had her bare feet dangling into the still cold lake, sitting on a wide rock with books lying next to her and a book of blanks she jotted down notes into.

She ran her mind through the song of the mermaid once again: "Come seek us, where our voices sound, we can not sing above the ground, an hour long you have to look, to recover what we took"

And once again she was sure that this didn't hold a clue for _how_ the Triwizard-Champions were going to even be able to look under water for a whole hour.

There surely _had _to be an answer and it was upsetting her that neither her, with her cheater's knowledge of the future to come, nor Cedric with one year of school ahead of her, had an idea whatsoever.

"Lily", she jumped at her name being called from the edge of the wood behind her, though she was momentarily happy when she recognised who's voice it was.

He looked stunning as always, responding to the sunshine in wearing short khaki-pants and a large brown hoodie. He was smiling from ear to ear as he leapt towards her and let himself fall down to the stone and kissed the back of her neck, which was free to the air with all the hair tied up into a messy knot.

"Good morning", Lily said cheerfully, enjoying the thrill of his touch rushing through her body right down into her feet.

"Anything new?", he was referring to the frustrating search for a solution to the Great-Lake-one-hour-underwater-problem, obviously.

"Surprisingly not", Lily sounded rightfully pissed off, "I don't get it, I've been through all the books. It makes no sense at all. How do they expect you to do this task, when there's no way to stay under water for so long?"

"There must be a way...but Lily...", he stroked her back gently and she heard him pull a smile.

"What now, Ced?", she was already ill-tempered with that bloody task and as much as she was happy to see him, he still could piss her off in a seconds notice. And now she hated, that he was laughing at her.

"Give it a rest. I don't even know why you are doing so much for me. I don't deserve a fourth of your time and effort"

Lily's features softened and she replied in a quiet smile: "You have no idea"

"Aren't you cold...you little catching-a-cold-magnet?", he was picking on her and pointing to her bare feet in the water. Apart from that she was appropriately dressed for early spring, long jeans, a sweater and a thick jacket.

"I'm fine", the hazel-eyed said and leant against Cedric who automatically stiffened to secure his balance, played a little with it and then corrected his position a bit so it was comfortable for both of them.

They used to sit like this always, in sweet unison, since the first conversations in mid winter at the lake and nothing of Lily's affection and positiveness about her fate being tied to his, had changed since then. Although she was non the less smarter about how this fate could turn out well.

A few days after Christmas, Cedric had written her a letter from home telling her about his break-up with Cho Chang.

She still reminisced most of what it said.

_Dear Lily,_

_I hope you're not having a cold again _(of course she had) _and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. I wish I could be with you, but you know...my father wants his family united in holiday seasons. He's going on and on about the tournament. I don't think he has the faintest idea how hard it really is._

_I miss you here, if not having you close, just having someone with me who really understands me. You always get where I'm at. I just love how you don't need so many explanations, you just always know. I think I told you that before._

_Anyway, I just wish you were here. _(She had wished that, too...all alone on Christmas)

_I talked to Cho yesterday. She came over for dinner and I told her I wanted to end it._

_I said it was because of the Triwizard-Tournament and my N.E.W.T.s and all that. She believed me._

_But I feel horrible for lying. It's better this way though, isn't it?_

_I asked her not to tell anyone. For both our sakes. She agreed because I think she knows about Rita Skeeter's extended research and that it could get ugly._

_I still feel bad and not having you here to tell me it's all going to be okay doesn't help._

_I miss you._

_I hope to get away here earlier, I don't know if it will work out, but I might be able to come back before New Year's. _(he didn't, due to Daddy's refusal)

_Love,_

_Cedric_

"Cedric", she breathed quietly.

"What?", he asked nibbing on her ear.

"Distract me. Tell me something"

"I'd rather ask you something", Cedric smiled.

"Go ahead then, as long as it keeps my mind off of that lake-mess", the next second she regretted having agreed to being asked every question, fearing having to lie again.

"Why weren't you with your family on Christmas?"

_Damn._

"Um...Dad had business and my Mum went with him...to Japan", she answered and crossed her fingers mentally that he would buy it.

"Hmm", he sighed, "Don't you miss them?"

It crushed Lily like a tide wave. Of course she missed them. Every second. Cedric had distracted her for most of the time, keeping her head circling around him but every now and again she felt the pain like a thousand little stings in her heart. Just like it did when she was in her bubble, before she'd known her purpose in the past. Except that it was worse now.

She had been lying awake mostly through the nights when Cedric hadn't been there thinking either about losing him or thinking about her family and friends who were probably mad by now or even – which would be harder to take, if she was honest – already dealing with never seeing her again; moving on even.

She remained quiet for a while, not able to speak without weeping, she feared and didn't want to concern Cedric or make him conspicuous, but when she caught the worried look on his face and the silent question in his features, she dared to open her mouth again.

"I miss them like crazy", she spoke through her teeth, swallowing a sob down her throat, "it's like...I haven't seen them for so long, I have never been away from them. I have a humongous family and we're very close and now...it feels like I'm all alone"

The battle was lost. She was crying.

"Lily", he let go of her, only to turn her around to look at him. His face was drenched in her pain, mirroring it, as if feeling the same way.

He raised his hand and wiped away the thin line the tears had made down her face, "I'm sorry, I didn't want to upset you, I..."

"It's okay", she was still sobbing, "I just miss my Mum and I miss my Dad and all of them"

"Tell me about them, tell me how they are", he encouraged her, reaching for her hands and squeezed it lightly.

Lily couldn't manage to speak any more, she just clung to Cedric and cried, feeling horrible about making him the witness to her outburst.

"It's okay, just talk to me, tell me, Lily", he said calm and held her tighter, "Tell me about your mother"

"She's the best person in the world", she whispered into his shirt, "she is so funny and she always cares and I used to be mad at that, because she always told me to be careful and she reminded me of every single thing I had to do, as if I had no mind of my own but now I miss that because I really tend to forget things and I...I...I just miss her so bad and I want to talk to her, tell her about you but I can't and my father, he's...I can't describe it really, he is so strong, I can always count on him, he would always be there", her crying got less once she focused on telling Cedric about them.

"I remember when I was turning nine and I'd always wanted my birthdays to be super special and then it started to rain and everything seemed messed up...my dad took me to our garden and I got soaked, I was yelling at him, because I was getting wet and I was getting a cold out there and then he took my hand and everything turned around. When I opened my eyes again I was on an island. Can you believe it? He apparated me to a sunny island just to make me happy on my birthday"

"And your brothers? James and Al, right?", Cedric stroke her hair like the caring mother Lily missed and craved.

"James is a git. But he's great underneath it all, he's brave and honest. A lot like you in that aspect. He's always picking up fights though because he's extremely arrogant. I guess he just needs the right girl. And Al is about the shyest creature on earth, it's a miracle he even talks to people other than family and he somehow found himself a girlfriend that rarely shuts up. They are so happy together – You know, I always hated being the youngest, being with them picking on me all the time. Funny how you can even miss something like that"

"When will you be seeing them again?", Cedric asked comfortingly.

"At the end of the school term, I guess", Lily's throat was even dryer than before and now something else flew along in her voice that she hoped Cedric wouldn't catch.

"I can't wait to get to know them", he said and like on cue, Lily was again crying.

This was all so wrong, she thought when she nestled closer to him, pulling him even tighter, surprised that this was possible.

She just wanted to hold on to him and never let go, clinging to the wild idea that she could be with him forever if she just _wanted _it enough.

"Lily", Cedric muttered, "You're breaking my rips"

She loosened her grip on him and before she could notice anything else, she was drenched in a kiss, the sweet taste of his tongue mixed with her salty tears as his kisses became more forceful.

He felt her tension, trying hard to ease it and succeeding a bit doing what he did.

"I'm here for you", he said to her when he paused the kissing at once, leaving her wanting more, "I will not leave you"

"Don't say that", she sighed bitterly and buckled away from him. Her body didn't like it, it felt like it was pushing itself back to the object of its desire, but Lily fought it, keeping the distance to get her message clear.

"Why shouldn't I? _I won't leave you_", he said with more emphasis on every single word.

"You can't know that. There are always reasons to leave...or to stay behind", her eyes filled with tears yet again.

"What are you saying? Do _you_ want to leave me behind?", he looked puzzled and even a little hurt.

"I'm saying we both can't know that. I might have to go somewhere, where you can't follow me or would not want to follow me and I could never force you to do something you don't want to do"

"Lily, you're being all cryptic. What is it?", now he seemed angry.

"We can't know what will happen eventually. I want it all to be nice and I want, I need to be with you, I want us to be together but no one knows, if we can", Lily said resolutely, "That's all I'm saying"

She was also lying. She knew that they couldn't be together.

Cedric remained silent for a while until both their self-control crumpled and they held each other close again.

"I don't want to leave you", he whispered after some time and kissed her, "ever"

When she went to sleep that night she was exhausted, exhausted from her emotional explosion, from the unsure future of her relationship and from fighting with Cedric over something they both agreed on.

She dreamed weird dreams and woke up soaked in sweat several times during the night. She saw her parents and her brothers laugh happily together as if she had never been there, she saw Rose and Corey walking around the Burrow, messing around as if their little Lily had never existed and she saw Cedric lying dead on the ground with a black cloaked monster with red eyes leaning over him.

When she sat up straight in bed for the one millionth time, she got up and wandered down into the common room, where the flames still danced around in the fire place.

The wide couch was cosy as always but it couldn't calm Lily down. She had manoeuvred herself once again to a place where she saw no getting out.

Given she could save Cedric, how was she going to get back? Did she have to stay here? She didn't want that...unless...if she stayed, she could stay with Cedric. But she would never see her family again. And Voldemort was on the verge of returning, dark and difficult times lay ahead and no one could be sure to survive them.

Restless and incredibly tired, Lily got up again, wrapped in the blanket she took from her bed and made her way up the stairs. The dorm was silent, except of the slow and regular breathing of Camille and Tara and Janice's babbling in sleep.

_She _never_ shuts up_, Lily thought in slight amusement as she let herself fall onto the hard mattress. Absent mindedly she reached for the lamp on her bed-side-cupboard and she gasped, when her fingers touched a weird surface. She reached to grab it and found that she had the little leather-covered book, that she was supposed to give to Hagrid, in her hands.

Suddenly curious, she reached for the lamp again and this time managed to turn it on, not taking her eyes off of the mysterious book.

It was tiny and it held no title, no description on the top. Lily supposed it was a book about something concerning Hagrid position as Ground Keeper but couldn't resist to take a look.

Her breathing ceased the moment the written words sank into her tired brain.

_Danger, Time Turning is a risky, mystified aspect of uncommon magic, only use it when well trained in sourcering and on your own behalf. _

Lily shook her head in disbelieve. _That _was it! That was her ticket home. Frantically, she turned the pages, trying to find a spell that she was able to do.

_Time Portal_

_In order to produce a fully functional Time Portal, that will get you to each and every time in the future, a wide space between two fixed abutments, two walls or two trees for example, is needed. _

_You need to mark the abutments with two gallons of the following potion:_

_1 ounce of pure wizard blood _

_2 ounces of liquidated Bertwurtz sprouts and _

_4 ounces of rattle snake saliva _

_(the potion is ready once hot steam elopes from the pot)_

_After marking you have to say the following spell:_

_Protinus Temporis _

_In between your abutments fog should rise, this fog is your time travelling portal._

_Walk through it, speaking the correct date, place and time of your destination._

_After your passage, the gate will close itself and can not be produced again at this place. _

That sounded easy. The ingredients weren't so hard to get, they had rattle snakes in the Forbidden Forest, she could tell Professor Snape something to make him give her the sprouts – he was still, if not more than before, fond of her – and she was a pure blood, so she could use her own blood for travelling. Though one full ounce seemed a bit much but Lily didn't have much of a choice.

But this was all weird, she suddenly thought, why would Ron give Fred this book and then take it to Hagrid? What was that about? Had someone else made this fag she stepped through? For themselves and she just slipped in by accident? Someone who knew Hagrid or Ron or both?

Wondering on, she eventually fell asleep, the book, closed and inconspicuous, clutched to her side.

The next morning was chillier than the days before, at breakfast, Lily was looking out for Cedric but he was no where to be seen. She swallowed down her cereals and stood up from the table, having sat there not more than fifteen minutes.

"Lily?", Tara said bewildered, "Are you walking out on us again? Remember we have an exam in History of Magic coming today, we wanted to learn together...do you recall?"

"Yes, I do. And I will be there, Tara, I just need to go now. I have to...well, find someone", Lily felt bad for not telling them about Cedric and herself, but it was simply too risky.

"It's all right, Lilz", Janice entered the conversation, elbowing Tara, "we're just saying that we miss you around"

A sorrowful smile spread on Lily's face as she walked away from them, backwards: "I'm sorry, really"

When she turned around headed for the Hufflepuff dorms, she felt even worse because it occurred to her yet again, that there were more people to be left behind, when she returned to her future.

Lily didn't know when this urge to be with Cedric at any time started building inside of her but it was growing steadily, it was almost unbearable being away from him for too long, not knowing if he was okay. And never the less, not being around him was wasting the time they had together and that pained more than worries or jealousy.

On her way into the cellar she wondered why Cedric hadn't been there or if he was just late and if she was completely overreacting and bugging. She hesitated and considered walking away again, but she couldn't.

The still life protecting the Hufflepuff entrance was hanging there innocently and the snorts of its only inhabitant, the round waisted peasant, filled the silence of the deserted corridor.

Lily remembered their first encounter, when she wanted him to get Cedric out of bed in the middle of the night and Lily felt bad from having to wake him once again.

"Young lady, it's the Diggory boy again, right?", he asked, his voice still low from sleeping.

"As always, yes", Lily answered. They were common now, Lily stood there quite frequently asking for Cedric to come out.

The peasant stood up noisily and disappeared out of his frame, he wasn't angry at her any more, they'd been through it too often.

Only half a minute later the door swung open and there stood Cedric, yawning and smiling at Lily, who hoped that this meant he wasn't mad at her any more from their fight the previous night.

"Hey", he smiled, looked around quick to make sure they had no audience and then kissed her briefly onto her forehead, "you okay? You look worried"

"You weren't at breakfast", Lily pointed out wryly.

"No...I was just coming. Lily, you're confusing me. First you say you want to leave me behind and now you check on me as if _I_ was trying to walk out on you", he didn't seem sour at all, it was just a statement.

"I'm not trying to walk out on you", she answered him helplessly, "I was just saying. Can we not talk about this any more?"

Silence filled the corridor yet again and Lily sighed quietly at Cedric's flawless but elliptical expression.

"I don't want you to walk away from me", Cedric said in his most silky tone and Lily melted at the spot.

"Me neither", she was telling the truth.

"Then, we don't have to talk about it any more", Cedric said and smiled, taking her by the hand to walk her down the corridor only to let go off her, when they heard steps coming through to them.

A short girl, probably in year three passed the two shooting heavy glances at Cedric and blushed severely, when Cedric grinned at her.

"Don't look so smug", Lily muttered.

They crossed the entrance hall and because it was already crowded with people rushing for their classrooms they held a greater distance than before, with Cedric a few steps ahead of Lily, who almost missed what he said when he turned around to her.

"Are you coming to see the Quiditch match?", he asked as if she was just someone to have that kind of small-talk with.

"Um...yeah sure...I'm going to sit in the first row", she joked back just as small-talk-ish and made her way to her Divination-class with Professor Trelawney.

The Quiditch match was uneventful as ever but for the first time ever, Lily felt excited, with Cedric catching the snitch and everyone celebrating him, she was proud and even though she couldn't say it out loud, she was happily bragging in her head; That's my boyfriend, that's my boyfriend...

Due to the secrecy of their relationship, Cedric's greeting as he passed her on the way back to the castle was curt and almost indifferent, but she caught his wink and new they would be seeing each other soon.

Then she saw Snape take on the same path up and thought of the things she wanted to ask him.

"Professor Snape", she said and he stopped and turned to see who had spoken, "here"

He found her and waited for her to catch up, waiting for her to speak.

"I was wondering if you could get me two ounces of liquidated Bertwurtz sprouts for a potion I want to try", she said happily and hoped innocently.

Snape furrowed his brow slightly, "To which purpose, Bertwurtz is very rare in this particular region"

"Just this one potion...uh", Lily said and had to think fast, "Er, Professor Snape, you have to promise to not tell anyone"

Now, Snape also raised an eyebrow, additionally to the furrowed brow.

"See, I'm trying out some of my own potions", Lily said on a whim and tried to look sheepish enough so he would believe she thought it was embarrassing to try her hand on her own potions.

Snape looked at her for a moment and the nodded curtly, "I will provide you with what you need, I think more students should show the effort you're continuously showing"

"Thank you, Professor Snape", Lily said happily and then bid her farewells to him.

Later by the lake at nightfall, at their usual meeting point, Cedric met her radiantly.

"Lily", he almost yelled as he ran towards her, "I found a way to take on the task"

Lily smiled brightly and kissed him as hello, "How?"

"Fleur slipped up", he said, "After the Quiditch game, she came up to me and we started talking about the task and she said something about having a hard time practising with the 'stupide bubble', so I checked a spell-book for impregnating whatever gadgets and there is a tiny sub-chapter in face-bubbles, with which you can easily stay under water for however long you want"

"That's great", Lily exclaimed and flung herself into his arms, "Now, nothing can go wrong"

"No, nothing at all", Cedric said and picked her up from the ground, spun her in a circle and only put her on down her feet to kiss her.

Their irregular meetings continued on until the night before the second task where she agreed to not seeing him one night because he had to be well rested the next day.

Lily on her part couldn't sleep at all, she wasn't so worried for him to fail the task, because she already knew that he wouldn't but she wondered once again how she would keep him from entering the maze. Time was running out on her and she could feel it. Between the second and the third task only lay a month: one month. It was all the time she had left, she had to work, fast.

The day of the task flew past around her, after lunch every one took the boats to three platforms in the sea and Lily boarded the third, where most of her Gryffindor friends and Cedric of course were.

Their communication remained quiet and subtle, through looks and gestures, she could see that he was worried but she managed to throw him an encouraging smile shortly before he, Krum and her aunt Fleur followed the opening shot and jumped gracefully into the water, seconds before Lily saw her father stumble in after them and reappearing in a great dive from the water to everyone's astonishment; he actually had fish-feet.

This, for the first time within the last two days, made her smirk and then she felt his piercing stare on her.

"Miss Potter", he said so that only she could hear.

"Professor Dumbledore", she answered him dutifully.

"Now all this time had passed and you haven't been searching me out to find out why I am not helping you to get back to your time", he said, straightforward, not waiting to say what he wanted to, "I can not keep from being irked"

"Remember how you said that I was here for a reason, maybe?", she said quickly and quietly, seeing Barty Crouch approach them, "I found the reason"

Dumbledore smiled knowingly and turned over to Crouch who told him about Fleur, who was getting out of the water with a defeated look, that Lily had never seen on her aunt before.

"What eez going to 'appen wiz Gabrielle?", she could hear her faintly with her still heavy French accent that had later lessened through the years of living with Bill Weasley.

Lily turned back her eyes to the lake and then, sooner than she had anticipated, Cedric hit the surface with Cho Chang at his side.

So this was the treasure they had to retrieve from the bottom of the lake. Funny enough the Triwizardian comity had not noticed that they'd picked the wrong treasure for Cedric but seeing that no one was supposed to know about them this was a good sign, showing that no one indeed knew about their blooming relationship.

Still, she couldn't keep from waving frantically at him, he'd done it and he was the first to have completed the task, he won!

Of course she'd known, although dimly, she could've been mistaken, remembering falsely that he'd won the second task but now she was sure, he had won and she had helped.

As he got out of the water, Cho dripping and cold behind him, she grinned at her and winked yet again, both, sworn to silence but still united in this instant in their triumph. It had taken many sleepless nights and over the course of the task at hand, they'd fallen in love and without realizing both their worlds had changed by becoming one.

For Cedric, Lily knew, everything was perfect now, for her it was a great moment but it wouldn't be long until she would have to start worrying again.

And when they heard the next day about Barty Crouch being murdered, Lily knew that this was her very own Quest drawing to a close.

Now, the only thing that mattered was Cedric, her Cedric and to keep him breathing, living.

Nothing else counted and Lily felt her own life focus it's whole entity around this purpose and for the first time in her life, she felt really and thoroughly scared for her own.


End file.
